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Supply chain resilience moves from response to strategy

Oct 14, 2026 | , , ,

Supply-chain leaders meeting in London have highlighted a significant shift in priorities, as resilience, visibility and flexibility move from operational concerns to strategic business requirements.

Recent years have tested international supply chains through pandemic disruption, port congestion, geopolitical conflict, Red Sea diversions, changing trade policies and extreme weather.

But one of the clearest messages from Supply Chain LIVE: The London Summit 2026 was that businesses are moving beyond reacting to individual disruptions and increasingly designing supply chains that expect change.

Some 2,500 attendees gathered at London's QEII Centre, with discussions spanning resilience, artificial intelligence, sustainability, global trade and supply-chain orchestration.

Contributions from senior executives at Siemens, Tate & Lyle, Babcock International, Kongsberg Maritime and other organisations highlighted how supply-chain management is evolving from an operational function into a strategic business capability.

Supply chain has become a boardroom issue

Supply-chain management was once primarily judged through operational measures: cost, inventory, lead time and service. Those measures remain important, but supply-chain decisions now have wider commercial implications.

Availability can determine whether production continues. Sourcing decisions influence exposure to geopolitical and tariff risks. Transport costs affect margins, while sustainability performance increasingly depends on information from suppliers and logistics networks.

Speaking about supply chain as a strategic growth engine, Tate & Lyle's Chief Supply Chain Officer, Kim Faulkner, emphasised the importance of looking beyond operational metrics to understand the wider business outcomes they enable.

Similarly, discussions on global trade and logistics highlighted how business continuity and strategic decision-making have brought supply chain into the boardroom.

That reflects what Metro is seeing across international freight.

Businesses are no longer asking only how cheaply or quickly goods can move. They are considering what happens when a preferred route, carrier, supplier or transport mode becomes unavailable.

Resilience increasingly means having options

Recent disruption has demonstrated how quickly established transport patterns can change.

Red Sea diversions have absorbed significant container capacity, while Asian weather disruption and port congestion have affected vessel schedules and reduced effective capacity across shipping networks.

The result is an important distinction between capacity that theoretically exists and capacity actually available when and where shippers need it.

During the summit's discussion on supply-chain risk and resilience, Babcock International's Ewan Sime observed that many risks are not necessarily new, but the ways they emerge and affect businesses are changing.

This reinforces the need to prepare for different outcomes rather than attempt to predict every disruption.

Building resilience does not necessarily mean maintaining expensive inventory buffers or accepting permanently higher logistics costs.

It means creating alternatives before they become necessary.

Different carriers and gateways can provide options when services are disrupted. Consolidation can offer alternative routes to market, while airfreight can protect urgent shipments when ocean schedules become unreliable. Road, rail and multimodal solutions provide further flexibility.

More efficient routing, better utilisation and consolidation can also reduce unnecessary movements, supporting sustainability objectives while improving operational performance.

The challenge is identifying and developing these options before disruption occurs, rather than searching for solutions when capacity is already constrained.

Visibility has to lead to action

Technology featured prominently throughout the London summit, particularly artificial intelligence and supply-chain orchestration.

AI can process information faster, digital platforms improve visibility, and automation removes repetitive processes. But knowing where cargo is located is only the beginning.

The real value comes from combining information with the ability to act on it.

That distinction was reflected in Kongsberg Maritime's presentation, From Visibility to Resilience, where senior executive Rob Anthony emphasised the growing importance of adaptability and flexibility in responding to supply-chain risks.

A delayed vessel notification has limited value without an alternative. Identifying congestion matters more when another gateway can be considered. Anticipating tightening capacity becomes useful when space can be secured before conditions deteriorate.

International supply chains remain complex networks of carriers, ports, suppliers and transport providers operating across different countries and regulatory environments.

The summit also reinforced the continuing importance of people. Siemens' Alexander Tschentscher highlighted the essential role of people in delivering effective supply-chain operations, even as technology becomes more sophisticated.

When disruption occurs, established relationships, experience and local knowledge remain essential.

Metro's technology provides customers with greater visibility and control across international movements, while its operational teams combine market intelligence, carrier relationships and local expertise to identify changing conditions and potential alternatives.

Technology can highlight a problem. Experience and operational flexibility help resolve it.

Globalisation is changing rather than disappearing

Resilience is also influencing where businesses source and manufacture.

Companies are reassessing dependence on individual countries, suppliers and trade lanes, supporting increased interest in India, Turkey, North Africa and manufacturing closer to end markets.

But diversification does not necessarily mean de-globalisation. New manufacturing locations create new trade flows, often introducing additional logistics requirements and infrastructure challenges.

India provides a good example. Its expanding manufacturing and export economy offers significant opportunities, but rapid growth is also putting pressure on vessel capacity, container equipment and inland infrastructure.

Metro's expanding presence in India provides greater local visibility and connectivity as customers consider the country both as an alternative sourcing location and a growing consumer market.

The same principle applies elsewhere. Supply chains are becoming more geographically diverse, increasing the importance of local knowledge, reliable transport connections and coordination across international networks.

From reacting to disruption to designing for it

Perhaps the most significant change in supply-chain thinking is the recognition that disruption is no longer exceptional.

The causes may change – weather, geopolitics, congestion, tariffs or labour shortages – but volatility has become a recurring feature of international trade.

Businesses cannot predict every disruption, but they can improve their ability to respond through better information, earlier intervention and greater operational flexibility.

This is where Metro's long-standing investments in technology make a practical difference.

Through its digital MVT platforms, Metro gives customers greater visibility of international shipments, products flows, supply-chain performance and the intelligence needed to support more informed decisions.

Combined with Metro's global network, carrier relationships and experienced operational teams, that visibility helps customers identify emerging issues, assess alternatives and take action before disruption becomes a more significant problem.

For shippers, resilience is increasingly less about predicting the next problem and more about having the visibility, intelligence and flexibility to respond when it arrives.

Metro brings these capabilities together to help customers build more responsive, efficient and resilient international supply chains.

Aircraft and moon

Airfreight market strengthens as peak season nears

Sep 30, 2026 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Global air cargo demand and rates are strengthening ahead of the traditional peak season, with rising volumes, firm pricing and higher fuel costs creating a more robust market as October begins.

The latest TAC Index and WorldACD data point to increasing momentum as the industry moves towards its busiest months, although conditions continue to vary significantly by trade lane.

The global Baltic Air Freight Index gained a further 0.6% in the seven days to 28 September, extending a series of modest weekly increases and leaving rates nearly 22% above the same point last year.

Meanwhile, WorldACD recorded a fourth consecutive weekly increase in global chargeable weight in week 38, with tonnages rising 2% week on week and 8% year on year.

Demand builds across major origin markets

The underlying demand picture is increasingly positive. Asia Pacific remained one of the strongest contributors, with origin tonnages 11% higher year on year. North American volumes increased 14% week on week following the Labor Day dip and were 8% above last year's level, while European origin volumes were 6% higher year on year.

Rates are also substantially above 2025 levels. WorldACD's average worldwide full-market rate was 24% higher year on year in week 38, while average spot rates were 33% higher.

Asia Pacific spot rates were 30% above last year, with Europe up 29% and North America 34%.

TAC Index data for the following week suggests that firmness continued into the end of September, with its global index extending its year-on-year increase to 21.7%.

The backdrop is being reinforced by significantly higher fuel costs. TAC reported that jet fuel prices were 106% above their level a year earlier by 25 September, adding another source of upward pressure as the market approaches peak.

Asia markets gather momentum

Asia is likely to be central to the developing peak-season picture. TAC recorded a 3% weekly increase in its Hong Kong outbound index during the week to 28 September, taking it 20.6% above last year. Rates from India also increased strongly, while China-Europe pricing continued to firm as the market adjusted following changes affecting low-value parcel traffic.

WorldACD similarly recorded further increases in Asia Pacific-Europe spot rates during week 38, including gains from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

The transpacific remains particularly strong. Asia Pacific-US demand was 13% higher year on year, including significant growth from South Korea, Japan and China. Average spot rates on the trade were broadly stable week on week but approximately 40% above their level a year earlier.

The picture towards Europe is more mixed. China and Hong Kong volumes have yet to recover fully from the disruption that followed the removal of the EU de minimis exemption in July, but pricing has begun moving higher on several key origins.

Golden Week adds to peak-season pressure

Attention is now turning to China's National Day Golden Week (1–7 October), which follows closely behind the Mid-Autumn Festival (25–27 September) and compresses production, export handovers and freight planning into a short period.

Metro’s local partners are already reporting stronger general cargo demand from North China as shippers move goods before the holiday, while transpacific demand from Southern China is also increasing.

Available capacity and additional charter operations have so far helped contain more dramatic rate movements. However, the combination of recovering volumes, firm year-on-year pricing, higher fuel costs and the traditional Q4 uplift creates the potential for conditions to tighten further as October progresses.

Worldwide international capacity was only 4% higher year on year in week 38, compared with an 8% increase in tonnage. Capacity also remains constrained in some markets affected by geopolitical disruption, particularly the Gulf.

Early planning for the Q4 peak

The latest figures do not point to a uniform capacity squeeze, but they do suggest that the airfreight market is entering peak season from a considerably stronger position than a year ago.

With demand building, rates already elevated year on year and conditions varying sharply between origins and trade lanes, access to the right capacity at the right time will become increasingly important through the final quarter.

Metro's global airfreight network, carrier relationships and flexible routing options help customers secure capacity and respond quickly as market conditions change. 

If you have time-critical, high-value or peak-season shipments planned for Q4, talk to our airfreight team about protecting capacity and keeping cargo moving.

HKG port

Asian port congestion could disrupt supply chains well into 2027

Sep 30, 2026 | , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Severe congestion across Asian container ports is tying up millions of TEU of capacity, driving schedule reliability to a four-year low and raising the prospect of disruption continuing well into 2027.

Repeated typhoons, strong Asian export demand and congestion spreading between ports have created disruption comparable in scale with the peak of the pandemic.

While conditions should improve as weather disruption eases, analysis of previous congestion cycles suggests clearing the accumulated vessel and container backlogs could take considerably longer.

Sea-Intelligence estimates it could take up to ten months for congestion to return to the levels recorded in June 2025, potentially leaving supply chains dealing with the consequences through the first half of next year.

Reliability falls as capacity gets trapped

The immediate impact is already visible in global shipping schedules. Schedule reliability fell another 5.9 percentage points in Sea-Intelligence's September report to 49.9%, its lowest level since September 2022 and the second consecutive significant monthly decline.

Late vessels are also getting later. Average delays increased by 0.6 days to 6.81 days, the highest since March 2022 and almost two days longer than a year earlier.

Estimates of the amount of capacity affected vary according to methodology and timing, but indicate the scale of the problem. Around 3.9m TEU is currently caught up in global port congestion, returning congestion volumes to levels last experienced in 2022.

Sea-Intelligence calculates the disruption is absorbing around 8.5% of the global containership fleet, effectively removing millions of TEU of usable vessel capacity from the market.

That helps explain why the industry's substantial influx of new vessels has yet to translate fully into available capacity. Ships waiting outside ports or arriving significantly behind schedule cannot provide the capacity their nominal deployment suggests.

Disruption spreads across Asian networks

Weather has been an important catalyst. Repeated typhoons have reduced effective port capacity at major Chinese gateways at the same time as strong export demand has increased pressure on terminals.

But congestion rarely remains confined to the port where the original disruption occurs.

Late vessels arrive together at subsequent calls, creating bunching and additional terminal pressure. Carriers may respond by omitting badly affected ports, but that can simply transfer containers and vessel calls to alternative gateways and transhipment hubs.

Some of that pressure is already shifting towards Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

The distortion can also make scheduled capacity figures misleading. Asia–North Europe deployment around Golden Week reached around 1.5m TEU over four weeks, approximately 27% higher year on year and 60% above pre-pandemic averages.

Rather than representing a straightforward increase in available space, part of that apparent capacity reflects vessels bunching as disrupted schedules overlap.

Rates reflect shrinking effective capacity

The consequences are particularly visible within Asia. Drewry's Intra-Asia Container Index has reached record territory as Golden Week demand meets restricted effective capacity. Shanghai–Laem Chabang increased 22% in its latest assessment, while Shanghai–Jakarta rose 12%.

The impact extends further afield. Asia–US rates remain close to pandemic-era records, while charter markets are also signalling exceptionally tight vessel availability.

This creates an important distinction for shippers: deployed capacity and usable capacity are not the same thing.

Even as carriers receive new vessels, congestion can absorb that additional capacity before customers see the benefit through improved availability, reliability or pricing.

The landside challenge could last longer

Port congestion also has consequences beyond vessel schedules. For individual shippers, reliability ultimately depends on when cargo actually becomes available and reaches its destination. Vessel bunching can create sudden surges in container volumes through terminals, rail connections, depots and road networks.

Those supporting networks cannot expand as quickly as vessel capacity.

Terminal, rail and road infrastructure requires long-term investment, while operators also need to maintain high asset utilisation. That leaves less spare capacity available to absorb sudden spikes following weather disruption or vessel bunching.

The result can be a second wave of delay after a vessel reaches port, particularly where terminals and inland networks are already operating close to capacity.

Chinese New Year becomes the next pressure point

The length of the potential recovery is therefore significant.

Based on recovery patterns following the pandemic and the initial Red Sea disruption, Sea-Intelligence estimates congestion could take six to eight months simply to return to conditions seen at the end of 2025, and 10 months to return to the much lower levels recorded in June 2025.

That timeline extends beyond Golden Week and potentially into the next major Asian shipping peak.

Chinese New Year falls on 6 February 2027, meaning the traditional pre-holiday cargo rush could arrive before networks have fully cleared today's disruption.

For shippers planning Q4 movements and early 2027 supply chains, advance bookings, realistic transit assumptions and flexibility around routing and gateways could therefore remain important well beyond the current congestion peak.

Keeping cargo moving when networks tighten

Metro combines established global carrier relationships with extensive origin, destination and inland capabilities, giving our teams the flexibility to respond when congestion disrupts established shipping patterns.

Through consolidation services, alternative carrier and routing options, gateway selection and coordinated inland transport, we can assess the complete movement rather than relying on a single service or routing.

With Asian congestion potentially affecting capacity and schedules well into 2027, talk to Metro about upcoming movements and the options available to protect space, maintain visibility and build greater flexibility into your supply chain.

Mundra Port

Container trade stays strong as disruption reshapes east–west markets

Sep 16, 2026 | , , , , ,

Global container trade is proving remarkably resilient, but record volumes mask a more complicated picture across the major east–west trades. Congestion, blank sailings and inland constraints are increasingly determining the conditions shippers experience.

July set a new monthly record for global container shipping, with 17.3 million TEU moved worldwide. Volumes were 4.5% higher than July 2025 and are running 5.1% ahead year to date.

That underlying strength matters. Despite geopolitical disruption, changing tariffs and widespread port delays, international containerised trade continues to grow.

But demand alone does not explain current freight conditions. Carrier capacity management, severe congestion at Asian ports and pressure on destination transport networks are creating increasingly different conditions by trade lane.

East–west markets move apart

The clearest divergence is between Asia–Europe and the transpacific.

Asia–Europe spot rates have continued to soften, with Shanghai–Rotterdam falling another 2% and Shanghai–Genoa 3% in the latest weekly data. The traditional peak appears to have passed, although congestion and blank sailings are preventing a more rapid correction.

Across the Pacific, the picture is very different. Transpacific demand strengthened as the US peak season extended later than initially expected, with west coast volumes rising 9% week on week in early September and east coast volumes increasing 3%.

Rates have consequently remained firm. Shanghai–Los Angeles increased another 2% in the latest week and Shanghai–New York 1%, following larger gains the previous week.

However, demand is only part of the explanation. Carriers are becoming increasingly active in managing available space through blank sailings, vessel rotations and capacity deployment as China’s Golden Week approaches.

Across the major east–west trades, around 11% of scheduled sailings between mid-September and mid-October are currently expected to be cancelled. More than half of those cancellations are concentrated on the eastbound transpacific, with a further third affecting Asia–North Europe and Mediterranean services.

The pace of change is significant. Announced blank sailings for the four weeks leading into Golden Week jumped almost 56% in just one week, and further cancellations remain possible as carriers adjust networks around the Chinese holiday.

The overall level remains manageable, with almost nine in ten scheduled sailings still expected to operate. But the acceleration in cancellations points to a more active phase of capacity management.

For shippers, softer demand will therefore not necessarily translate directly into lower rates or easier access to space. How aggressively carriers remove capacity before Golden Week and how quickly demand returns afterwards could determine the balance between available space and pricing through October.

Congestion is moving through the network

Capacity management is only one part of the east–west picture. Four successive typhoons have left major Chinese ports working through substantial backlogs.

Between early July and late August, almost 5.8 million TEU of vessel capacity arrived more than seven days late at Chinese ports, which is around three times the level recorded before the storms.

The impact on schedule reliability has been dramatic. According to figures from Sea-Intelligence, global reliability fell over 6% in July to 56.4%, its sharpest monthly deterioration in more than five years, while late vessels were arriving an average of over six days behind schedule.

Conditions became particularly challenging on east–west services during the typhoon period. Asia–Europe on-time performance fell to around 10%, while Asia–North America dropped to 23%.

Although congestion is gradually easing, the network has yet to recover fully. The combination of existing backlogs, the pre-Golden Week export push and subsequent factory closures could prolong disruption into October, with bunched vessel arrivals then feeding through to European and North American ports.

That is particularly relevant in the US, where pressure is already building beyond the quayside.

The National Drayage Spot Market Index is 8.2% higher year on year as driver availability, equipment constraints, terminal turn times and appointment availability tighten the market.

Import containers are waiting six to seven days on average for inland transport at some locations and up to 14 days at individual terminals. Pressure has been reported around Los Angeles/Long Beach, Houston, Chicago, Memphis, Savannah and other inland gateways.

For US importers, securing ocean space is therefore only one part of the challenge. Drayage and inland capacity need to be planned earlier, particularly when disrupted schedules result in several vessels and large volumes of cargo arriving within a compressed period.

India disruption continues beyond Mundra strike

The end of the 13-day dispute affecting empty container yards at Mundra has not brought an immediate return to normal operations.

The strike officially ended on 10 September, but Metro’s team in India continues to report around 5,000 containers delayed each day, with empty container flows particularly affected.

The scale of Mundra makes those continuing delays significant. The port accounts for around 35% of India’s container trade, so disruption can quickly affect equipment availability, exports and wider regional supply chains.

The situation also highlights India’s growing importance within international sourcing strategies as businesses diversify their supply chains and increase manufacturing and procurement activity across the subcontinent.

Metro India continues to scale strategically in response. The business is expanding across seven locations, creating a stronger platform for sourcing, consolidation, origin management and exports across the Indian subcontinent.

Overall, ocean markets remains stronger and more complicated than headline rate movements suggest. Global container volumes are setting records, but where carriers deploy capacity, how quickly Asian ports clear backlogs and whether inland networks can absorb arriving cargo will shape conditions through Golden Week and into October.

We may return to examine these developing themes in more detail, as the impact of Golden Week becomes clearer.

Metro combines global ocean freight buying power with local expertise across key origin and destination markets, including our expanding operation in India and established US network. We monitor capacity, blank sailings, port conditions, equipment availability and inland constraints throughout the journey, giving customers the intelligence and routing options to act before disruption reaches their supply chain.

Image: Adapted from The port of Mundra in Gujarat by Felix Dance, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

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