Panelists Insights on Global Supply Chain, Logistics and Pandemic Impact on Businesses

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the global supply chain and logistics have been disrupted. But the disruption didn’t start there. According to Mousa Kassis, director of the Ohio Small Business Development Center Export Assistance Network at Youngstown State University, tariffs implemented by the Trump administration impacted the global supply chain during the last three months of 2019. In those three months, shipping containers coming from the east have dropped consecutively 18%, 20% and 19%, he says. “Now, move into the coronavirus and it did add to this situation tremendously,” Kassis says. As a result, shipping by water has become more expensive, increasing to nearly $5 per kilogram up from about $2.10 per kilogram, he adds. Air shipping has also increased. “So now, a 777 coming from the East, sometimes it costs $1 million carrying 100 tons of products,” he says. Kassis offered his insights into the current state of the global supply chain during the “Survive, Adapt, Transform: Doing Business in the New World” panel discussion on July 1. It is the fourth installment in a series sponsored by First National Bank of Pennsylvania. He was joined by FNB Corp. Director of International Banking Services George Holt, and Chris Colella, FNB’s senior vice president and commercial banking team leader.