The Six Choke Points That Can Upend Global Trade: QuickTake

Whether it’s shoes, TVs or steel bars, there are vast economies of scale to be reaped from concentrating production in one part of the world, as long as you can ship goods safely and cheaply to where they’ll be consumed. The pandemic stress-tested that proposition: Covid lockdowns and border closures caused supply chains to seize up, sparking a painful bout of inflation.

The coronavirus has been more or less corralled, but this is no time to be complacent. Global maritime commerce is facing the biggest confluence of risks in generations: wars in Ukraine and Gaza, China’s tense standoff with its ...