Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented companies that sell cross-border and/or purchase inputs from abroad with problems in terms of importing goods and the shipping of their own produce to foreign clients and markets. Against this backdrop, the present paper reviews the causes behind the supply chain disruptions when the pandemic unfolded, as well ways through which companies tried to deal with them. The paper postulates that actors in international business will place a stronger emphasis on risk management and business continuity plans, and that the adoption of advanced, digital, forms of market intelligence gathering and supply chain vigilance will strike root. In parallel it expects that rather than a wave of backshoring, a layered form of offshoring can be foreseen towards the future: a form multi-localization across various continents, and on occasions also inside an individual continent.
