After more than two years of headlines reporting on a supply side challenge that was crippling construction projects, a new industry survey is indicating that things have substantially improved.
According to the ConstructConnect findings, contractors in general are reporting far fewer supply chain issues than they did between 2020 and 2022.
The improved environment comes as authorities in the Panama Canal have been limiting traffic in an effort to conserve water due to ongoing drought conditions. That decision, notes the publication Truck News, “threatens to impact the ability of retailers to stock inventories ahead of the holiday season.”
The Panama Canal’s low water levels have led to a backup of at least 200 ships. Those ships are primarily gas carriers and bulk cargo.
The ConstructConnect survey revealed that among the items still difficult to obtain because of supply chain issues are transformers, meter bases, lighting, and switchgear.
Survey respondents also reporting delays in receiving air handlers, chillers, HVAC equipment, roofing materials, and both doors and door hardware.
Meanwhile a new report released during the annual conference of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City last week indicated that China remained as thoroughly embedded in the supply chain to the U.S. as ever, despite moves to lessen its role.
“The U.S. indirect supply chain links to China remain intact,” said the report, written by two scholars from the Harvard Business School and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
And even though efforts have been made in recent months to increase the supply line coming out of Mexico and Vietnam, the China connection appears to be as strong as ever.
In remarks delivered to the Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo remarked that the “last two years of supply chain crises have revealed that the U.S. government needs to invest more in supply chain resilience.”
Raimondo said she is particularly interested in the U.S. pursuing “supply chain resiliency” with partners in the Indo-Pacific region via the established Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
The Supply Chain Center, set up by the Commerce Department, is specifically designed to leverage quantitative date and advanced analytics, noted Raimondo, as a means of formulating more effective supply chain strategies at the federal level.
By Garry Boulard
