China’s main commercial hub has been under lockdown since the start of April, and a map showing marine traffic around the port of Shanghai has gone viral. Awash in a sea of red dots—each representing a stationary vessel—it is an evocative image of a city suffocating in a supply chain chokehold.
In this video, McKinsey’s Shenzhen-based partner Steve Saxon, who leads the Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practice in China, explains why this map doesn’t quite paint the full picture. For one, to understand what’s happening to supply chains, container ships and container ports are what matter, not fishing boats and navigational buoys, which are also included in the image. In reality, the Shanghai port…