New stress points have emerged for global supply chains in the form of Taiwan’s fatal earthquake and the closure of the Baltimore harbor, potentially disrupting trade’s gradual recovery.
Ports in the US East Coast are racing to absorb cargo diverted from Baltimore after last week’s deadly bridge collapse. With the closure of the nation’s busiest gateway for automobiles, companies like Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are already searching for other routes to move their parts and vehicles.
On the other side of the world, Taiwan — the main producer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors — was rocked by its worst earthquake in 25 years that killed at least nine people, left more than 1,000 injured and leveled buildings. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp. halted some chipmaking machinery and evacuated staff at certain facilities though both expect to resume normal operations.
This as Bloomberg’s Trade Tracker showed a slightly worse reading in April, with three out of 10 indicators in “below normal” territory, versus just two in March. Taiwan’s export orders dropped sharply despite hopes of an uptick in electronics sales. Shipping volumes in Hong Kong also plunged even as ports in Singapore and Los Angeles saw sizable increases.
The world’s supply chains are now even more precarious, with continued violence in the Red Sea still forcing containers traveling between Asia and Europe to take longer, costlier routes around Africa. The Panama Canal will also need at least the rest of this year to fully recover from the 2023 drought that depleted water levels and choked vessel traffic. With fewer routes to reach their manufacturers and markets, companies — and the broader global economy — risk missing out on burgeoning consumer demand.
We’ve selected measures across shipping, sentiment and export volumes to watch. For the clearest indication, we measured how far each gauge is from historic norms. These data update in real time from the Bloomberg Terminal as they’re reported.
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