Supply chain issues expected to ease slowly by the end of 2022

Issue of raw material shortages could end soon Supply chain issues have been a problem for many, including a London-area packaging company. CTV's Marek Sutherland explains.

London, Ont. — Over various times during the pandemic supply chains have been challenged, but there is hope on the horizon.

“In 2020, you had the second wave, particularly in the U.S., of COVID. That created some capacity problems with the supply base,” says Rick Grant of Jones Healthcare Group, which creates packaging for many popular pharmaceutical products.

They have had issues with supply chains because of COVID-19 but weather has also played a part when it comes to raw materials for the packaging they use.

“You had the deep freeze in the United States, which affected of course Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas. Where you have a lot of mills, you have a lot of resin suppliers.”

Fraser Johnson from Ivey Business School says because of COVID-19 and the constant changes to production and demand, it’s created a whiplash effect

“The recovery process is creating significant shortages. And it's also created a number of constraints on the nodes that we have in our supply chains.”

And Johnson doesn’t expect that to correct itself quickly.

"The supply chains will self-correct and we'll work our way out of this, but it is going to take several months.”

Grant agrees with the timeline, but says he is starting to see a slow return to normal

“I would anticipate, I believe, that we've managed and we've stabilized now. I do think most of our raw material suppliers are anticipating equal production to what they've had in 2022.”

There isn’t one sector or product that is affected more than another, but rather a broad clogging of the supply chain that is expected to ease by the end of 2022.