The Ever Given – a symbol
A symbol of how dependent companies are on their supply chains, of how emergency response has to rely on rudimentary technology, and ultimately of how the little person has to manage the big crisis. The latest example of how vulnerable supply chains are was provided by the Ever Given accident in the Suez Canal in late March 2021. A canal, nearly 200 kilometers long, 120 meters wide, shortens the distance between the North Atlantic and Asia by approximately 30%. Instead of taking about a week to circumnavigate Africa, a canal passage of 11 to 16 hours is all it takes for ships from all over the world. It's no wonder, then, that this route is highly frequented and that almost 10% of the world's trade passes through this bottleneck. A ship getting stuck there is nothing new - in the past 10 years, about 25 ships have been [...]