Maersk urges resilience in Latin America

Maersk said on May 19 that Latin American supply chains now need to be designed for resilience as well as cost efficiency, arguing that volatility has become a structural feature of regional trade rather than a temporary disruption. The shipping group said geopolitical tensions, climate events, regulatory changes and economic instability have reduced the predictability that underpinned older planning models. In Latin America, Maersk said, those pressures are compounded by currency swings, infrastructure gaps, regulatory complexity and heavy dependence on international trade flows. MundoMaritimo reported the comments on Tuesday, citing Maersk’s regional market update. ### Why is Maersk saying lean supply chains are no longer enough? Maersk said in its May 2026 Latin America Market Update that efficiency-driven models with minimal inventories and tightly optimized processes were built for relatively stable conditions. The company said those assumptions no longer hold in a region where disruptions have become part of normal operations rather than isolated events. (mundomaritimo.cl) MundoMaritimo reported that Maersk described Latin America’s operating environment as more exposed because local structural constraints limit alternative routes and make fast operational adjustments harder. The publication said Maersk pointed to lower logistics performance relative to global standards and persistent infrastructure and regulatory bottlenecks. (maersk.com) ### What balance is Maersk asking companies to strike? Maersk said the challenge is no longer choosing between efficiency and agility but integrating both into the same operating model. The company said efficiency remains necessary for competitiveness, while agility is needed to maintain continuity as conditions change. The company’s formulation was that supply chains should be able to “adapt continuously” rather than adjust only from time to time, according to MundoMaritimo’s account of the report. (mundomaritimo.cl) That means planning for disruption as a recurring condition, not treating it as an exception case. ### What does that look like in practice for network design? (maersk.com) Maersk said companies should embed flexibility, visibility and faster response capacity into supply-chain design if they want to preserve service levels under volatile conditions. The company’s recent Latin America updates have repeatedly framed adaptive design as a response to recurring shocks across transport, regulation and demand patterns. (mundomaritimo.cl) A practical reading of Maersk’s guidance is a hybrid network rather than a single fully centralized model. That inference is supported by the company’s emphasis on combining competitiveness with continuity: centralize categories where scale purchasing and standardization matter most, while holding more regional or local capacity where lead-time variability, perishability or service risk is higher. (maersk.com) ### Why does Latin America make that trade-off more acute? Latin America’s exposure is heavier because external shocks hit a system that already has less slack, Maersk said. The company cited infrastructure limitations, regulatory changes, exchange-rate volatility and dependence on global trade flows as factors that amplify disruption. (maersk.com) Datamar News, citing Maersk’s January 2026 regional update, reported the same underlying argument earlier this year: logistics decisions in the region increasingly extend beyond freight rates because uncertainty now affects continuity, timing and service reliability. That consistency across Maersk’s updates suggests the company is treating resilience as an operating requirement for 2026, not a one-off warning. (mundomaritimo.cl) ### How does this translate for multi-island resort operators? Multi-island resort groups face the same trade-off Maersk described, with the added constraint of inter-island transfers, customs friction and perishability. A mixed distribution model fits that setting: centralized buying for standardized, slower-moving goods; island buffers for fast-moving or guest-critical items; and transfer logic for rebalancing stock when one property faces a shortfall. This is an inference from Maersk’s stated framework, not a resort-specific recommendation issued by the company. (datamarnews.com) Maersk’s next Latin America market updates are published on its regional news pages, where the company has been issuing monthly assessments in 2026, including reports in January, March, April and May. MundoMaritimo’s May 19 report said the latest update set out the company’s current view of how regional operators should respond. (maersk.com) (mundomaritimo.cl)