| Pub. Date | : Dec 2020 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJSCM31220 |
| Author Name | : Gilles Pache |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Strategic |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 9 |
In the spring of 2020, coronavirus infection from China shook the world's economies, both by crashing stock markets and bringing a significant number of supply chains to a virtual standstill. One after the other, European countries announced figures for an economic recession of an intensity not seen since the WW II (Pache, 2020). It is both a crisis of supply and a crisis of demand: a crisis of supply because the destruction of productive capital is massive as a result of business bankruptcies; a crisis of demand because the number of unemployed has accelerated at an unprecedented rate in Europe in just a few weeks, but also in the US. In the UK, for example, motor vehicle sales fell by 97% in April 2020 compared to April 2019, to the same level as 1945. In France, industrial production fell by more than 16% between February and March 2020, dragging many sectors of activity into a spiral of collapse (clothing, catering, entertainment industries, etc.). It would be possible to go into detail on the figures that underline the scale of an unprecedented crisis, which has imposed massive intervention by the European Central Bank (Benassy-Quere et al., 2020).
It will undoubtedly take time to evaluate the real impact of the deflagration induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, and then to move forward. The origin can be attributed to a twofold cause: (1) on the one hand, more or less drastic lockdown measures of populations in their homes, to prevent the spread of the pandemic from generating an uncontrollable flow of patients in respiratory distress to hospitals; and (2) on the other hand, a profound disorganization of global supply chains, paralyzed by failing international supplies. Admittedly, in May and June 2020, with the reopening of shops and the regained freedom to move, European economies slowly began to function again, but at a much slower pace than before the crisis. Households have suffered a major psychological trauma (Dubey et al., 2020), and it is difficult to anticipate how quickly they will regain the desire to consume. It may take many months before a lost equilibrium is regained, and some analysts believe that the "world after" will never be the same again.