Our Christmas wish lists are being held hostage, and not just by the Delta variant, which has spread across much of Asia, where many of the world's factories are — and where lockdown measures needed to counter high infection rates forced many factories around the region to stop working, at least temporarily (via Reuters). They're also being affected by problems in shipping and logistics, which compromises a manufacturer's ability to get goods from where they are made to where they are meant to be sold.
Business Insider reports that the problem with global logistics could be seen in 2020. It began with air transport, when a drop in human air traffic meant fewer planes were taking to the skies, and fewer planes were available to carry cargo. As a result, air freight charges went up by as much as 400% in some instances, because shippers were willing to pay a massive premium in order to have their goods delivered from one place to another. Sea cargo has been a problem too, because containers, which are meant to hold goods, are not where they are meant to be today. The shortages have since led to ports being clogged by items waiting to go out, and it's driven up the cost of ocean freight rates, in some cases, by as much as 14 times.
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