Page 12 - Hafen Hamburg | Port of Hamburg Magazine 4.2021

■ WORLD TRADE
Around 90 percent of world trade goes by sea. If bottlenecks arise there, that makes a rapid impact on the economy
12 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2021
Supply Bottlenecks Create Uncertainties
The economic upswing is once again faltering. The repercussions of the corona pandemic are still discernible. Various economic research institutes are unanimous on that.
Everything will be better next year. Repeated fresh waves of the corona pandemic and the resultant lock- downs have not led to the recovery of the economy as had been hoped. Such is the general feeling of these institutes. The world economy failed to achieve a sus- tained recovery. Instead, a succession of fresh clo- sures created problems for many supply chains. Pro- cessing industry therefore is lacking some raw materials. This has affected not just the automotive sector. The chemical and textile industries also have to contend with serious gaps.
The impact on different regions of the world has var- ied. The Joint Economic Forecast project group re- gards positive mention of the United States of America as essential here. It is only there that total production
expanded during the first half, with growth of over 1.5 percent per quarter. The experts see the reason for this as being that the for the most part, the USA let the economy carry on running. No major lockdown oc- curred. This means that GDP for 2021 should climb by 5.6 percent.
China, by contrast, started the year well. The country brought the virus under control relatively quickly. Yet its restrictive containment policy repeatedly caused local lockdowns that slowed down economic development in the People’s Republic. Industry also suffered from the semi-conductor crisis. Faltering property develop- ers like Evergrande are currently causing additional un- certainties. Despite all these factors, China will be able to boost it GDP by 7.8 percent.
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