The 10 top disruptions in 2024 (so far)

As the supply chain rose in prominence around the world, so too did the scrutiny it now faces. Because of that, it should not come as a surprise that global ESG (environmental, social, governance) legislation is driving up labor violations.

In fact, laws such as the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, Canada's Modern Slavery Act, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Deforestation Regulation, and the new PFAS regulations contributed to a 144% increase in labor violations in the first half of 2024.

That insight is part of the findings from Resilinc, a provider of supply chain resiliency solutions, in analysis from data in its EventWatchAI platform.

Overall, disruptions in the first half of 2024 increased 30% over the first half of 2023, the firm said. There were 10,629 documented cases of disruptions in the January through June period. The top 10 disruptions were:

• Factory fires  
• Labor disruptions 
• Mergers & acquisitions 
• Leadership transition 
• Factory disruption 
• Business sales/profit warnings
• Legal action 
• Recall 
• Extreme weather 
• Cyber attack 

Resilinc noted that some traditionally high-risk areas such as factory fires—down 21%—saw decreases, many areas have seen large increases this year. Regulatory changes jumped 185% and legal action grew 43%, for instance.

Several financial and organization risk areas also saw big increases even as the broader business sales and profit warnings category saw only a modest increase. Resilinc noted that economic pressures from high interest rates and inflation, increased operating costs and shifting consumer demand helped drive bankruptcies up 200%, force majeures 128% and leadership transitions 92%.

Talking Supply Chain Podcast: What level of risk are you willing to accept?

Global labor unrest was also a big factor. While strikes and protests in the U.S. were limited, globally that was not the case. Overall, labor disruptions increased 42% year-over-year, but protest/riot disruptions were up 421% globally.

Extreme weather also continues to be a major disruption. Even though the U.S. hurricane season has not lived up to dire predictions just year, extreme weather events saw a 130% increase in the first half compared to the first half of 2023. Specific weather event types like flooding increased by 220%, forest fires increased by 48%, and tornadoes jumped 94%.

As hurricane season continues, Resilinc has already recorded the highest number of “notifications” for hurricanes/typhoons (63 alerts) in the first half of this year—marking a 37% increase over last year and a staggering 425% jump from H1 2019. 

Of these reported disruptions, over half (58%) were impactful enough to trigger the creation of a WarRoom, Resilinc said. These virtual platforms are created in the Resilinc dashboard when events have a high potential to disrupt customers’ supply chain operations.

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