Businesses are proving quite resilient to the pandemic

IF A VENGEFUL deity were to design a weapon to wield against the global supply chains that characterise modern business, it might well hit on a virus which hit production facilities all around the world. In the face of covid-19, though, the sinews of business have, for the most part, held up remarkably well.

Air freight has suffered, but shipping has steamed on—and its comparatively long transit times have provided a buffer to the supply shocks which followed China’s shutdown. Prologis, an American company which operates one-and-a-half Manhattans-worth of warehouse space around the world, says that 95% of its customers have remained at least partially operational. Systemic risks such as those which brought the banking industry crashing down during the financial crisis have, as yet, failed to materialise.

This is not to say that business is booming. But it is demand, not supply, that is lacking. To the extent that the sinew is not working it is for want of a task, not for want of strength.

That companies have been aflurry over their supply chains is not in doubt. From January to May supply-chain disruption was mentioned nearly 30,000 times in the earnings calls of the world’s 2,000 biggest listed firms, up from 23,000 in the same period last year. Mentions of “efficiency” declined from 8,100 to 6,700. Managers...

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