Three years after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in early 2020, global supply chains now experience a return to normal in terms of pressure.

That is the conclusion of a new analysis by the Federal Reserve (the Fed), Bloomberg News writes.

The pressure on global supply chains is actually even lesser than the norm. The Global Supply Chain Pressure Index now shows a level of -0.26 points which is the lowest it’s been since August 1989.

A clean zero on the index marks the historical average, and the index’ most recent peak was in December 2021 at 4.31 points.

In seven of the past ten months, the index has decreased as congestion in the world’s ports has eased off. Pressure on shipping routes is also more lax alongside consumer demands.

”There were significant downwards contributions from most of the most important factors, with the biggest contribution stemming from Europe in relation to delivery times,” the Fed writes.

US ports are also back to normal

Supply chain issues were especially felt along the ports the US Western Seaboard from late summer 2020 all the way into 2022. There were major congestions for ships heading out the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, but conditions have now returned to normal, says shipping analyst Linerlytica.

”Port congestion at North American ports has been effectively cleared with the total containership tonnage waiting at US anchorages dropping to their lowest levels since 2020,” Linerlytica writes on LinkedIn.

”This marks the end of the severe disruption to the container supply chain caused by port congestion that started in September 2020 at Los Angeles/Long Beach that gradually spread to other North American ports across both the US West Coast and East Coast.”

English edit: Christian Radich Hoffman