Bottlenecks & Choke points

From Tokyo, Japan and Sterling in the United Kingdom. This is Down to Business English with your hosts Skip Montreux and Des Morgan.

Dez Morgan. Welcome back. So good to be back behind the microphones with you.

Thank you, Skip, it's good to be back. Although I've been so involved in retraining as a public school teacher since returning to the UK that the time has just flown past in an instant.

Is that right? Well, from my perspective, it seems like you've been gone for ages.

Well as Einstein would have said, it's all relative.

I suppose so.

In any case, you and Samantha have done a great job holding down the fort. I've enjoyed listening to all of the episodes while I was away.

I'm so happy to hear that. We have had a lot of fun putting those shows together. But Des, I have to ask you, what has it been like for you living in the UK again after such a long absence?

Heh, that's a good question. In some ways it's much the same, but in others it's drastically different. One positive change is the food. It's much better than it used to be, but then that probably has to do with immigration. Maybe that'll go backwards now with Brexit. Back to those old pies that you cook in a tin and instant mashed potato. A negative change has been how expensive everything has become, but I guess that's a worldwide situation.

And exactly how long have you been away?

Oh my. Uh let me see. I first left for Japan in nineteen eighty-nine. I spent 17 years there. After that I was in Argentina for a year and then Bosnia and then Leeds back in the UK before settling down in the UAE. I was in the UAE for nine years. before moving to Scotland in twenty nineteen. Total I was pretty much gone for twenty-eight years.

Wow, almost three decades. And when you did return, did you experience much reverse culture shock?

As I was saying, some things had changed a lot, like Brexit, and others were much the same.

Interesting.

Well

Today on Down to Business English, we will be reporting on the global supply chain and the strain it has been under due to not only the COVID pandemic. but also the recent incident in the Suez Canal.

Right. That situation is having an immense impact on Europe in particular.

Oh let's do it. Let's You know, Daz, why don't you do the honors? It's been so long.

My pleasure. So let's do it. Let's get D2B. Down to business with bottlenecks and choke points. The current status of the global supply chain.

So let's start with the Suez Canal incident. Des, can you briefly tell us what happened?

Sure, but before that, just so we're all on the same page, let's talk about the Suez Canal itself for a moment.

Okay. What can you tell us about the Suez Canal?

This 200km long canal is located in Egypt and it connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. In effect, it links the Indian Ocean to the North Atlantic. Or another way to look at it, it connects Asia to Europe. So it's an extremely vital trade artery.

I don't think most people really appreciate just how important the Suez Canal is to global trade.

Mm perhaps not.

And how long has it been in operation?

Um it opened in eighteen sixty nine after a ten year construction period.

So it's over a hundred and fifty years old.

Yes, and since opening in eighteen sixty nine, shipping companies have been able to avoid circumnavigating or sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and the continent of Africa. That's right. For modern container ships going through the Suez Canal cuts off eight to ten days in shipping times.

Wow. And just how much traffic actually traverses the canal?

As I said, it's an important artery. Approximately 12% of world trade goes through the canal on an annual basis. So if something goes wrong there it becomes a major choke point.

And something did go wrong there, didn't it?

Ah yes, something indeed went very wrong. On March 23rd, one of the world's largest container ships, the Ever Given, got caught up in a severe windstorm as it was going through one of the narrowest sections of the canal.

My understanding was that the Evergiven was en route from the Tanjung Pelapis port in Malaysia On its way to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands,

That's correct. It had just entered the southern portion of the canal, the portion that only supports one way traffic, when it got caught up in a severe windstorm and was blown off course.

So this was a weather-related incident?

Um the official cause is still under investigation, but weather certainly did play a role. Regardless, the end result was that the ever given got wedged between the sides of the canal.

It got wedged.

Yes, we're Its bow ran aground into the east bank of the canal and its stern was stuck in the west bank.

Okay, so in non chipping terms, its front end was sticking into one side of the canal and its back end was sticking into the other.

Yes, the whole ship was sitting on about a forty five degree angle across the width of the canal. preventing other ships from travelling in either direction. And just

How big is this container ship? The ever given. Uh

Uh using one word huge.

Huge.

Huge! It's not the largest, but it's certainly one of the largest container ships in operation today. The Ever Given is actually owned by the Japanese company Shohe Kisenkaisha. and operated by Evergreen Marine out of Taiwan.

That's interesting. I didn't realize there was a Japanese connection to the incident. But how big is the ship? Can you give me some actual figures?

Yeah.

Sorry.

The Evergiven has a total length of 399.99 meters and a beam of 58.8 meters.

A beam? What is a beam?

Yes, uh a beam is a marine term for the width of a ship. So the ever given is just under sixty meters wide.

Yes, that certainly is huge.

And here are some more numbers for you. It has a capacity of over 20,194 TEUs.

Okay, and what exactly does a T E U stand for?

Hati EU stands for twenty foot equivalent unit. Basically it's the size of an individual container. So

Well what you were saying is that the Evergiven has the capacity to carry over twenty thousand containers, is that right?

Precisely.

That is a lot of cargo. It it is.

And just try to imagine the impact of having a blocked canal. You have similar sized ships on either side bottling up, not being able to get through to their final destination. Quite the worst case scenario for international logistics.

Now I know that the canal was blocked for six full days, that the ever-given was finally freed on the morning of the seventh day.

It was stuck for a total of 150 hours to be exact, so 6.25 days.

Yes. Okay. And in that time, how many ships were blocked from transiting the canal?

That's an interesting question. Some shipping companies opted to reroute their ships the long way round Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. But others decided to wait out the situation. There were something like three hundred and seventy ships bottled up on either side of the Suez, so in total over seven hundred vessels were affected.

The consequences of that bottleneck must be devastating.

Absolutely.

So what specifically are some of those ramifications?

An immediate ramification is the stress on the global supply chain. Specifically European ports are now being overwhelmed with a sudden surge in traffic.

Sure. I'm sure things came to an almost standstill while the canal was blocked. Now that ships are finally getting through, the ports are overwhelmed. They just can't handle the sudden increase of capacity.

Here's another number for you. There was nine point eight billion dollars worth of goods held up for each day. Canal operations were suspended. 9.8 times 6.25, well, you do the math.

Yeah, somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty billion dollars of product.

And another ramification is the impact on the logistics internationally. The world supply chain works on the principle of just in time delivery. For this just-in-time strategy to work, cargo needs to show up at its destination on time. If it doesn't, it not only causes manufacturing delays, it also impedes ongoing logistics.

That's right. All of those containers are needed elsewhere. They need to be unloaded and shipped back to the suppliers as soon as possible. Otherwise, those suppliers won't be able to ship to other waiting customers.

It is a very intricate balancing On on a global scale.

And this Suez Canal incident has just exacerbated an already taxed supply chain.

Due to the COVID pandemic.

Yes, according to logistic experts, there is a forty percent shipping container imbalance between the US and China at the moment.

What does that mean exactly?

What it means is that for every one hundred containers used to ship goods from China to the US, Forty have not been returned.

Ah, so in essence, Chinese factories don't have enough containers to ship new products out, causing delays elsewhere.

It is a mess.

And um how did it reach this point?

Well, when COVID first spread through China in early twenty twenty, many factories had to shut down. This, of course, caused export delays to the US and Europe. But by the time the Chinese factories reopened, the rest of the world was in the midst of pandemic lockdowns.

And we still are.

Indeed. Interestingly, one result of lockdowns around the world is that consumer shopping habits have changed. Disposable income that was previously spent on going out to restaurants or to movies is now being spent shopping online for goods.

Which inevitably increase demand on manufacturers and thus supply chains.

That's right. So when the Chinese factories came back online, there was an incredible demand for products.

But getting it to markets has become a nightmare, logistically speaking.

It truly has become a nightmare. Shipping costs have almost tripled in the last twelve months. At the beginning of this year, there were forty two container ships, all roughly the same size as the Evergreen, anchored offshore the port of Los Angeles, waiting to be unloaded. Every warehouse within 100 kilometers of Los Angeles is full to capacity.

None of that sounds good, and I'm sure there are similar choke points throughout other parts of the world.

Which is leading to product shortages and price increases everywhere, at least for the short term.

Tell me Skip, have you personally noticed an impact?

Hmm, well, for the most part, no. Hm But there is one product I import from the US on a regular basis that is becoming increasingly more difficult to get my hands on.

Yeah, okay, what's that?

It's it's a little embarrassing, but it's it's men's beard dye. I'm not a spring chicken any more, and the beard I've grown over the pandemic is as white as snow. I'm just not ready to look like an old man yet, so I've started dyeing my beard.

Poor Skip trying so hard to keep Father Time at bay

Yes. Well, anyway, the product I order from the US, it's called Just For Men Beard Dye. Usually it arrives in ten days or so. But the last shipment took a full six weeks to get here.

I'm guessing you must have looked like Santa Claus by then.

Not too far off. Anyway, I think it is time for us to get D2V down to

Down to business English, audio scripts are a great learning tool and can help you get the most out of each episode. Be sure to visit the D2B website and download your free audio script of today's podcast. Downtobusinglish.com That's downtobusinglish.com

Let's jump right into vocabulary today with an expression that Des used in the introduction to our report.

And what would that be?

The expression is to hold down the fort. And it means to have responsibility for something when someone else is absent.

That's right. I said that you and Samantha had done a good job holding down the fort while I had been away.

In other words, you think we did well putting out down to business English episodes when you were not available? Des, can you give a business example using Hold Down the Fort?

If you are a manager in an office and you're about to leave on a business trip out of town, you might tell your assistant to hold down the fort while you're away.

I'm sure he or she would be very thrilled with the chance to take care of things while their manager is out of town. Nice example. What's our next word?

Next on the list is the verb to circumnavigate. You can probably hear in the pronunciation of this word sir, come, na, be, gate, that the root of the word is the same as the word circle.

Circumnavigate. So it has something to do with circles.

Yes, when you circumnavigate something you sail, fly, or in some other way navigate around something.

Circumnavigate is really just a compound of circle and navigate.

Very good, Skip. In the story, I said that before the Suez Canal opened in 1869, sailors had to circumnavigate around Africa to get to Europe from Asia. In other words, they had to sail around Africa.

But you can use circumnavigate idiomatically as well.

You can, certainly. Idiomatically it means to avoid or go around some kind of obstacle. Can you give us an example using circumnavigate idiomatically in a business situation skill?

Sure. I'm sure that all of us have had to deal with an uncooperative boss or manager at some point in our careers.

I've dealt with several difficult managers in the past.

Well, my advice to anyone who works under a difficult superior is to circumnavigate them as much as possible. Don't ask for approval if you don't need to. And if you do need to get their permission or green light on a project and they say no. Go around them and ask their boss before you give up.

Hmm. Don't know about that advice, Skip. You could be opening a can of worms by circumnavigating your boss.

І вас just an example.

Hm, fair enough. Do you have our next word?

I most certainly do. Next, I want to briefly talk about the verb to traverse. When you traverse something, you travel across or over something.

So it's similar in meaning to circumnavigate.

I suppose so. But whereas circumnavigate has a circular nuance? As in Around the World, Traverse has more of a horizontal nuance. In the story, I asked Des how many ships traverse the Suez Canal. I was asking how many ships traveled through the canal?

Right, circumnavigate would not be a good word choice in this context. Because the canal is quite straight and relatively flat.

Exactly. What is our next word?

our next and final word of D2V Well actually I want to talk about two words that have similar meanings.

And what would they be?

Uh the words are bottleneck and choke point. Bottleneck is a narrow point in a road, river, a pipeline, anything that's really used to transport things. So at this point only a small volume of traffic can get through at the same time.

And how did we use this word in the story?

However, we did use the verb form bottle.

Right. You reported that 700 ships were bottled up on either side of the Suez Canal.

In other words, ships were waiting for their turn to pass through the canal.

And choke point has a similar meaning.

Pretty much. Except that a choke point has a strategic nuance. It is a bottleneck that if closed can prevent vital supplies from getting through to their destination.

So the Suez Canal is definitely a choke point in the world.

As is the Panama Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar, and the Strait of Humuz in Pers in the Persian Gulf. If any of these choke points were cut off for an extended period of time, it would be very harmful to all of us.

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Like I said at the beginning of today's show, it is very nice to be working with you again.

Do two skip, I hope we can do this again sometime in the not too distant future. Well

I know that the choke point for you is your new teaching responsibilities. So make sure that those come first. Samantha and I will continue holding down the fork.

Don't worry Skip, I'm sure I'll be able to circumnavigate the new job well enough to find some time to record with you sometime soon.

Sounds great. And to all of our listeners out there, if you found today's episode of D2B useful in your English self-studies, I highly encourage you to consider becoming a D2B member. Membership will give you access to our entire audio script library, to members-only episodes. and will help us produce shows on a more regular basis.

How many episodes are in the library these days, Skip?

Today's episode is number 175. So that's 175 audio scripts. with useful words and phrases for your business English.

That is quite a resource.

I think it is. Just visit the Down to Business English website and click on the membership link at the top of the page for more information. Our different membership levels. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time.

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