Eighteen nations, including the United States, have pledged to work together to strengthen global supply chains. The joint statement announcing the initiative was released after the 2022 Supply Chain Ministerial Forum.
The eighteen countries are Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
They will work together to reduce and end near-term disruptions and build long-term resilience, according to the statement. The joint statement, which was posted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, cited pandemics, wars, conflicts, extreme climate impacts and natural disasters as threats to supply chains and reasons work must be undertaken to make them more robust.
The participants “intend to work together on crisis response in an effort to alleviate near-term transportation, logistics, and supply chain disruptions and bottlenecks as well as the long-term resilience challenges that make our supply chains vulnerable and cause spillover effects for consumers, large and small businesses, workers, and families,” the statement reads.
Ongoing work will follow global supply chain principles of transparency, diversification, security and sustainability. The partners will work with “businesses, workers, academia, labor and civil society, including women, representatives from local and other communities” on the issue.
The supply chain situation is impacting telecommunications.
In June, International Data Corp. (IDC) said that smartphone shipments were on pace to decline 3.5% to 131 billion this year. IDC said that its shipments had declined for three consecutive quarters and that the firm had revised its 2022 forecast downwards.
Supply chain issues and reduced consumer demand were reasons for the slower growth. The firm does expect a bounce back, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.9% through 2026.
Some companies may have taken things into their own hands. Last month, the Dell’Oro Group released its broadband equipment sales numbers for the first quarter of the year. The numbers showed a 14% increase over the year-ago quarter.
Commentary in the coverage suggested that the strong results despite supply chain disruptions may have been the result of prudent stockpiling by service providers.
