Insight - Can you trust your suppliers after a lousy year?

Soaring prices: Cranes work to load containers onto a ship, inside Port Miami. Higher raw materials costs and supply chain problems have been raising overall costs for businesses. - AP

THE supply chain crunch has turned the once-staid world of manufacturing and industrials upside down.

The imbalance is so severe that consumers are feeling the pain, as prices of raw materials and goods are thrown out of whack. Debates about inflationary pressures are raging. What more could go wrong? Well, a lot. Especially if the grease that makes the wheels turn starts drying out.