Supply chain: ‘Everybody's frustrated and exhausted’
As for supply chain issues, said Yates at Ingredion, “As you walk the floor and talk to people here, it's still the first topic as I think everybody's frustrated and exhausted. We’ve had to reset our level of expectation around lead times and what we might have to hold for inventories to accommodate the New World of the supply chain.”
He added: “There's just a lot of volatility right now and the foreign exchange is really outside of what we consider normal these days although ocean freight [rates] are starting to come back down now. If you look at energy in Europe, for example, it's been an enormous cost driver… we don't even know if we can keep plants open, because you just don't know if the supply of energy is going to be there.”
On availability, he said, “Some of the corn sweeteners in the US right now are really tight in supply.”