Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today, an energy crunch affecting China and how it could make the global supply of goods even more precarious.

Electricity prices will be increased by 20%. And that's a big deal for the Communist Party. Clearly, the energy crisis is worrying them. And it should worry everyone else.

Yep. Today, as bottlenecks everywhere affect global supply chains, we're asking, are they fit for purpose?

We've seen over time how if one part of this elaborate supply chain is disrupted, it could have ripple effects through the

entire chain. Supply chain experts are beginning to look seriously at how can we make these supply

chains more resilient and flexible, at least to maximize the available savings from them.

That's all to come in Business Daily from the BBC.

Just to give you an idea, you know, when you have a big company selling sofas,

the guys are calling the company in Asia, they're placing the order, you have this problem.

A big problem and a global problem.

That's Stavros Karen Peridis.

He teaches maritime economics at the University of Plymouth in the UK,

and he's been watching with a sense of awe

how the pandemic has helped to trigger a cascade of problems

in the global supply chain.

One just keeps leading to another.

And stick with the example of the missing sofa.

It's wanted in Europe, and it's been ordered from Asia.

You need a couple of days for the manufacturer to complete the order.

And then the manufacturer drops a call to a logistics provider to come pick up the order.

They bring a container.

They put all the sofas in the container.

...