Retail

Even before an enormous container ship rammed a bridge in Baltimore, sending the span hurtling into the Patapsco River, and halting cargo traffic at a major American port, there was ample reason to worry about the troubles dogging the global supply chain, The New York Times reported. Between swirling geopolitical winds, the variables of climate change and continued disruptions resulting from the pandemic, the risks of depending on ships to carry goods around the planet were already conspicuous. The pitfalls of relying on factories across oceans to supply everyday items were at once vivid and unrelenting. In Central America, a dearth of rainfall has limited passage through the Panama Canal, which has impeded a crucial link between the Atlantic and the Pacific, delaying shipments to the East Coast of the U.S. from Asia. These episodes have played out amid memories of another recent blow to commerce: the closing of the Suez Canal three years ago, when the container ship Ever Given hit the side of the waterway and got stuck. While the vessel sat, and social media filled with memes of modern life stopped, traffic halted for six days, freezing trade estimated at $10 billion a day. Now the world has gained another visual encapsulation of globalization’s fragility through the abrupt and stunning elimination of a major bridge in an industrial city distinguished by its busy docks. The Port of Baltimore is smaller than the nation’s largest container terminals — those in Southern California, in Newark, N.J., and in Savannah, Ga. — but it is a major component of the supply chain for vehicles, serving as the landing zone for cars and trucks arriving from factories in Europe and Asia. It is also a significant embarkation point for exports of American coal.