When the 400-metre long, 220,000-ton container ship Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal in March, shipping was thrust into the limelight. Up until that point, the majority of people weren’t paying attention to ships or containers because our supply hadn’t being disrupted in a long time. All of a sudden supply, demand and shortage were discussed and people started to realise that one ship blocking one lane had a massive impact in all of us. So how exactly shipping works? And why are we so impacted by ocean freight?

Over the past couple of months we’ve seen an increase in articles reporting that Christmas this year might be ‘cancelled’. So what exactly is going on?

Last week, SmartCompany published an ebook focused on disruptions in the supply chain. Here’s our main takeaways from it.