The Next Threat to Fashion’s Supply Chain

Trouble at the Ports

• The pandemic’s supply chain snarls are starting to unwind, with shipping costs and delays easing
• US West Coast port operators and dockworkers are negotiating a new labour contract; the current deal expires on July 1
• A slowdown, and later a strike, paralysed West Coast ports in 2014 and 2015, disrupting distribution of apparel and other goods made in Asia

The news has been buried amid increasingly dire inflation reports, but…