🚢 One ship blocked a route carrying roughly 12% of global merchandise trade and showed just how fragile the world’s supply chains can be. In March 2021, the 400-meter-long container ship Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal and became wedged across the waterway. The blockage lasted six days, bringing traffic through one of the most important shipping routes between Asia and Europe to a standstill. Hundreds of vessels were left waiting while others were forced to consider the much longer route around Africa. The World Bank estimated that about 12% of world merchandise trade normally passed through the canal at the time, with roughly $9.6 billion worth of goods moving through it each day. By the time the Ever Given was freed, a backlog of more than 360 ships had formed and the disruption had already pushed shipping costs and delays even higher. It became one of the clearest examples of how a single failure at a critical piece of infrastructure can ripple across the global econ...