75% of EU Shippers Face Disruptions; Half See Major Cost Impact

A new Maersk-backed survey reveals that European supply chains remain in a state of heightened fragility, with 75% of shippers reporting disruptions over the past year—a sobering indicator of structural vulnerabilities in regional logistics networks. What distinguishes this finding is not the occurrence of disruptions themselves, but their prevalence: more than half of affected shippers faced *significant* cost impacts, suggesting that disruptions are no longer isolated incidents but rather a normalized challenge that organizations must factor into operations and budgeting. This data point reflects the compounding effect of multiple shocks—from lingering pandemic recovery challenges, to geopolitical tensions affecting trade routes and supplier availability, to capacity constraints in key infrastructure nodes.

The cost burden is particularly acute, as shippers absorb expenses related to expedited shipping, inventory buffers, and route modifications. For supply chain professionals, this signals that reactive, siloed approaches to risk management are insufficient; the 12-month disruption prevalence rate demands proactive scenario planning and investment in supply chain visibility and flexibility. The implications extend beyond individual shipper balance sheets.

High disruption rates erode customer service levels, complicate demand forecasting, and incentivize geographic or modal diversification of sourcing and logistics networks. Organizations that have not yet embedded redundancy, demand-sensing capabilities, or dynamic routing protocols into their operations face competitive disadvantage in an environment where disruption is increasingly the baseline expectation rather than an exceptional event.