Despite the current Omicron wave, global transaction volumes between buyers and sellers are both increasing and stabilising.
This is according to fresh data from supply chain IT company Tradeshift. (However, this data does not include the impacts of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, or the slowdown across China's supply chains.)
Tradeshift has been closely observing the supply chain disruptions over the last two years, given the chaos observed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tradeshift’s Q4 2021 Index of Global Trade Health showed that the recovery in activity for supply chains in the USA continues to track at a higher level than anywhere else in the world.
“Momentum dipped slightly in Q4, falling one point compared to the previous quarter, but an index score of 97 (against a baseline of 100) for the period means the cumulative growth in activity since the pandemic sits just 3 points below the pre-pandemic forecast,” the company said. “Spiking cases of the Omicron variant tempered the overall momentum across global supply chains, but the impact has been generally far less severe than during previous waves. Total growth in global transaction volumes during Q4 remained level with the previous quarter, finishing the year with an index score of 75.”
“We saw a massive spike in orders in the second quarter of 2021 and that should have triggered a glut of invoices from suppliers at the end of the year,” according to Christian Lanng, co-founder and CEO of Tradeshift.
“We’re seeing some early signs that the pressure on supply chains is starting to ease, but if invoice volumes continue to follow the current trajectory, then it could be at least a year before we see order backlogs fully subside. China’s decisive action early on in the pandemic enabled local supply chains to get back up and running before the end of the world, but the same strict policies now seem to be having the opposite effect. A spate of lockdowns in key industrial regions across China could trigger more shortages of crucial manufacturing components and extended order backlogs in international markets.”