US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg: Supply chain problems could continue into the coming year

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US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg: "All of our options reassessed"

Photo: LEAH MILLIS / REUTERS

According to US Secretary of Transport Pete Buttigieg, the impairment of global supply chains will continue into the coming year.

The minister stressed on several political talk shows over the weekend that President Joe Biden's government was doing everything it could to relieve the ports and rail and road transport.

This would "re-evaluate all of our options."

However, "many of the challenges we faced this year would continue into next year," Buttigieg said on a CNN broadcast.

At the same time, he said that the extraordinary increase in demand in the US is exacerbating the situation.

Retail sales "went through the roof," said the Minister of Transport.

The shipping traffic cannot keep up.

Buttigieg said in an interview with the US broadcaster NBC, "this is a capitalist country" and "these are private-sector systems".

“Nobody wants the federal government to own or operate the shops, warehouses, trucks or ships or ports.

Our role is to make sure we support businesses and workers. "

For this year's Christmas business, the weakened demand due to the corona pandemic increased again massively.

However, pandemic-related restrictions persist in the supply chains.

US President Biden recently announced that the important port of Los Angeles would therefore be operating around the clock.

The economic advisor to the insurance company Allianz, Mohamed El-Erian, forecast a further deterioration in the situation on Sunday.

"Things are going to get worse before they get better," he told Fox News.

"So we will have more shortages of goods, higher prices, and inflation will stay at 4.5 percent."

jso / AFP