More than 18 months after the Corona pandemic, disruption in global supply chains continues to worsen, leading to shortages in consumer products and an increase in the cost of shipping goods.

This is troubling news for retailers and shoppers as well, who are likely to face higher prices and fewer choices this Christmas and New Year's season, according to Arab Net.

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Companies such as Adidas, Crocs and Hasbro warn of global supply chain disruptions as they prepare for the end of the year holidays.

The latest unrest is in China, where a terminal in the Ningbo-Zhoushan port, south of Shanghai, was closed two weeks ago, after a worker contracted COVID-19. This partial shutdown of the world's third-busiest container port has disrupted other ports in China, hitting supply chains struggling with coronavirus and natural disasters due to climate change, persistent container shortages, factory closures in Asia, and the lingering effects of the Suez Canal blockage in March. /p>

Experts expect that the crisis will not see signs of easing until the first quarter of 2022.

The Global Container Index shows that the total cost of shipping a 40-foot container on eight major east-west routes exceeded $9600 last week, up 360% from 2020.

The biggest price jump was on the road from Shanghai to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the cost of a 40-foot container rose 659% to about $13,700.

Container freight rates on sea trade routes from Shanghai to Los Angeles and New York have also jumped.

According to Soren Skou, CEO of container shipping giant Maersk, the current high freight rates are due to the fact that there is unmet demand. Sufficient capacity.

Retailers are struggling to restock quickly and prepare for year-end holiday demand, prompting consumer goods producers to take drastic steps to meet demand, such as changing where products are manufactured. And take it by plane instead of boat, but companies like shoemaker Steve Madden are already losing sales!

The company has moved half of its women's collection to Mexico and Brazil from China, in an effort to shorten shipping distances and delivery times.