With our significant presence in various regional supply chains, the U-Freight Group (UFL) notes a report in the Wall Street Journal, which suggests that new globalisation strategies may be forming in the wake of the pandemic-driven disruptions in supply chains.

The WSJ says that many companies are considering changing their global manufacturing and sourcing models, as they seek to avoid product shortages and transportation delays, even if the new strategies increase their costs.

Although the WSJ says that there is little evidence of a big shift so far, given the costs and the uncertainty, but surveys and interviews with executives show some companies are starting to set the groundwork aimed at making their supply chains more resilient.

One approach under discussion is ‘regionalisation’, in which companies source components or establish factories in several parts of the world at once. Those operations would serve nearby markets and provide backstops in case of disruptions in other parts of the world. Such strategies have been criticised before as too costly, but the coronavirus pandemic has scrambled conventional calculations.

For more information about all of U-Freight’s regional supply chain services, please contact your local office.