For months now, the supply chain has been under stress, causing a bottleneck in world trade, which is already affecting people’s wallets. Delays in shipping, shortages of microchips - electronic devices that are present in a large part of everyday consumer goods -, causing a rise in the price of raw material and with China playing a leading role in all this. Therefore, any shake-up in the Asian giant has a direct impact on the rest of the world. A perfect storm that has been weighing down the activity of most companies for months and is already affecting families' shopping baskets.

Experts defend the reindustrialisation of the West as a strategic solution for the future to avoid dependence on foreign countries and avoid fluctuations in logistics chains. Ignacio Aparicio, managing partner of Andersen's Corporate and M&A practice: "We will have to think about whether we have to move away from more short-term strategies, have better inventories, not depend so much on global value chains or highly delocalised production and be more self-sufficient countries and economies so as not to be so vulnerable".

A return to normality is what everyone wants, but when? The vast majority agree that the problem will take time to be solved in the short term. "It is now difficult to foresee when a reasonable match between supply and demand will occur. What is the good and bad news? The good news, which we are learning every day, is that this situation will pass, albeit not immediately. The bad news is that what is happening now has nothing to do with an occasional supply and demand imbalance that may occur cyclically, but that the rupture, the collapse of the chain is total. As with the pandemic, we are in a new situation, with a desire to consume, a lot of money in the air, economic incentives to reactivate the economy and continue to trigger demand, which will generate an even greater inflation problem", Aparicio points out.

The full article can be read in Valencia Plaza.