Converging Forces: Human, Digital and Circular Supply Chains Uniting People, Technology & Sustainability for Resilient and Accountable Global Trade
By Dr. Raymon Krishnan, President of The Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society (LSCMS)
As early as the 3rd quarter of each year, I work with our respective Board members on the focus and theme for LogiSYM in the coming work year. For 2026 our focus is on People, Technology & Sustainability for Resilient and Accountable Global Trade.
Resilience is a word that is being bandied about quite a fair bit recently, but my sense is that not many leaders and logisticians grasp the full sense and importance of this in their supply chains.
The events of November 2025 serves as a stark, undeniable reminder of the fragility underpinning our highly optimised ASEAN supply chains. As severe flooding triggered by the rare Equatorial Cyclone Senyar and Tropical Storm Koto impacted Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, the resulting backlogs and delays are more than just a temporary blip; they are a critical stress test of our regional logistics resilience.
We are now navigating the immediate aftermath, and we are all now acutely aware that Climate Shocks Are Now a Core Supply Chain Risk and Not a Black Swan Event
In 2024 alone, climate-related disruptions affected more than $2.3 trillion worth of global trade, according to international risk analysts. By 2030, over 60% of global ports are projected to face regular climate-induced operational shutdowns. The severe flooding that swept across Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam in November 2025 proves that these projections are no longer theoretical, they are operational reality.
Ports across the region are now gradually resuming operations after the rare equatorial Cyclone Senyar disrupted maritime and inland logistics networks. In Thailand, Songkhla Port is working toward normalisation, yet restricted road access and alternative routings are adding up to six hours of additional transit time. In Indonesia, landslides and flooding across Sumatra have severely impacted inland logistics. Malaysia’s ports and freight corridors faced widespread operational delays, while Vietnam’s maritime sector continues to recover from Tropical Storm Koto and flash floods.
This is not merely a weather story. It is a strategic wake-up call.
The Anatomy of the Disruption
- Infrastructure Paralysis: In Thailand, the normalisation of operations at ports like Songkhla is encouraging, but road access remains limited, forcing alternative routings that add a crippling six hours to transit times. This immediate pressure on first and last-mile connectivity cripples predictability.
- Archipelagic Vulnerability: Indonesia saw widespread logistical impacts from landslides and flooding across Sumatra, exposing the inherent vulnerability of supply chains reliant on inter-island shipping and local infrastructure in the archipelagic context.
- Regional Congestion: The immediate fallout is visible in our major hubs. We are seeing significant vessel bunching in Singapore, with waiting times of 12 to 36 hours, and similarly high congestion at Port Klang (26-hour waits). This compounding effect means regional delays quickly become international bottlenecks, penalising everyone.
- The Air Freight Bottleneck: Whilst air freight provides an urgent alternative, the sudden surge in demand instantly constrains capacity when coupled with the year-end volume uptick, making it a viable but expensive option only for critical, high-value cargo.
The Long-Term Reset: Building Climate Resilience Logistics
This episode of simultaneous, widespread disruption, driven by rare but intensifying weather events demands that we integrate climate resilience into the core of our logistics strategy for 2026 and beyond.
- Investing in Robust Infrastructure: Government and private investment must be channelled into climate-proofing critical infrastructure. This means elevating port access roads, reinforcing coastal protection measures, and investing in advanced, autonomous monitoring systems to provide early warnings for vulnerable road and rail networks.
- Standardised Regional Contingency Plans: We need a formal, ASEAN-level framework for crisis response. This framework should detail how neighbouring ports and logistics nodes can quickly absorb diverted cargo when a primary hub is incapacitated. This ensures that the recovery of one country does not come at the cost of crippling congestion in another.
- Digital Data Standards: The fragmentation of data exacerbates the recovery effort. We must accelerate the adoption of standardised digital data exchange across borders, ensuring that disruption information from customs clearance adjustments to port status is universally available and machine readable
Supply chains designed purely for efficiency will struggle in a world increasingly defined by disruption. Resilience, redundancy, climate intelligence, and multimodal agility must now sit at the core of network design not as optional upgrades.
The question is no longer if disruption will happen but whether your supply chain is truly built to absorb it.
About the Author
Dr. Raymon Krishnan
President of The Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society (LSCMS)
Dr. Raymon Krishnan is the President of the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society (LSCMS) with over 25 years of experience in global supply chain and logistics operations. He has held senior roles across multinational companies and advises on supply chain strategy, compliance, and trade. A regular speaker at industry events, Dr. Krishnan is widely recognised for his leadership in advancing supply chain professionalism in the Asia-Pacific region.
