Supply Chain Havoc

January 4, 2022 1:29 pm Published by
Supply Chain

Over the past two years, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the construction industry’s supply chain.  Causing contracts to go up and profit margins to shrink.  Contractors are desperately trying to forecast tomorrow’s prices while being awarded contracts on yesterday’s prices.  

In an article from Georgia Tech News Center, Pardis Pishdad-Bozorgi,  associate professor in the School of Building Construction and director of the Smart Built Environment Eco-System (Smart Bees) Laboratory  at Georgia Tech stated:

“Like any other industry, we are facing supply chain challenges related to production of materials and receiving them on time for projects due to the pandemic.”

According to FM Global a commercial property insurer there are “six key facets of current global supply chain strain”.  You can read this more in-depth by going to their newsroom.  (FM Global Newsroom).

We’ve outlined those here:

  1. COVID-19 – Consumers hunkered down and factories have suspended production.
  2. Cyber risk – a May cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline disrupted U.S. Fuel supply.
  3. Port Backlog – from a labor shortage.  Specifically truck drivers.
  4. Truck Driver shortage
  5. Deadly Floods in China and Europe severed railway links and disrupted manufacturing.
  6. Chip shortage from closed factories and a surge in technology demand as more people work from home.

While many of these are contributors to the strain on our countries supply chain distribution, few have felt it as significantly as the construction industry.

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This post was written by Prime Source