Three years ago, at the start of the pandemic, supply and demand turned upside down. From toilet paper to hand sanitizer, and then home improvement and building goods, the supply chain was caught off guard and customers were left unhappy. Much of that has resolved, but there are still items that can confound the supply chain in 2023.
These are the most likely to be in short supply in the coming months:
- Many food items are tangled up in shortages right now, some due to extreme weather conditions animal diseases and other causes. Among them are lettuce, eggs, and grains.
- The necessary components to make electric vehicles are also hard to come by. With demand spiking for EVs, the materials that go into batteries are used up faster than they can be mined. Lithium, graphite, and cobalt may all be in short supply.
- Semiconductors are not new to the list, but the story is their continued short supply. Making the chips is slow work and demand is outstripping the pace of production. Add in the fact that United States productivity remains behind foreign makers, and the deficit continues. Efforts by the federal government to catch up, however, may put a dent in the issue by year’s end.
