Delays have stretched a delivery that ordinarily would take weeks to more than half a year.... In an industry with 25 million containers and some 6, 000 ships hauling them, it’s easy to see disruptions as one big headache confined to the shipping world.... The culprit: a shortage of empty containers for transport....

SINGAPORE: Somewhere in the world’s busiest port of Shanghai, a container of fertiliser sits among tens of thousands of boxes, waiting for a ride to the United States.... It’s been on the dock for months, trapped by typhoons and Covid outbreaks that have worsened major congestion in the global supply-chain network. While the fertiliser has been stranded there since May, the port is just one stop on the long journey from central China to the US Midwest.... And that time frame will keep expandin