EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: ‘It’s All Happening Again.’ The Supply Chain Is Under Strain.

Stephanie Loomis had hoped that the chaos besieging the global supply chain was subsiding. The floating traffic jams off ports. The multiplying costs of moving freight. The resulting shortages of goods. All of this had seemed like an unpleasant memory confined to the Covid-19 pandemic.

No such luck.

As head of ocean freight for the Americas at Rhenus Logistics, a company based in Germany, Ms. Loomis spends her days negotiating with international shipping carriers on behalf of clients moving products and parts around the globe. Over the last few months, she has watched cargo prices soar as a series of disturbances have roiled the seas.

Late last year, Houthi rebels in Yemen began firing on ships entering the Red Sea en route to the Suez Canal, a vital artery for vessels moving between Asia, Europe and the East Coast of the United States. That prompted ships to avoid the waterway, instead moving the long way around Africa, lengthening their journeys by as much as two weeks.

Meanwhile: Let’s Kick Off Summer With Another Losing War! “As an unapologetic booster of Western Civilization, I’d remind you with all the bitterness I can muster that the Suez Canal was built by Westerners to serve Western interests, and now we can barely use it, thanks to medieval pirates — the likes of which we used to know how to deal with.”