China shipping logjam chokes Christmas in US and Europe
Severe bottlenecks in trade between China and the rest of the world are frustrating retailers and shoppers in Europe and the U.S. during the year’s biggest shopping season.
During Germany’s first COVID-19-lockdown in March, Oliver Hellmold, CEO of Notebooksbilliger, one of Europe’s largest online electronics retailers, started ordering twice as many gadgets from China as usual for this year’s pre-Christmas sales, anticipating a pandemic-related shift toward people working from home.
But by October Hellmold had begun struggling to maintain inventory. The shortages have been especially dramatic for monitors, PCs and notebooks: Hellmold says that since August demand from schools and the public sector has been up by about 40% year-on-year as learning and services shift online.