Supply Chain Risk Shifts From Geography to Materials in Q3

Supply chain risk in late 2026 is shifting. The old geographic chokepoints – port bottlenecks, customs backlogs, route disruptions – are giving way to scarcity in raw materials, constrained component supplies and compressed procurement timelines, according to the quarterly corporate strategy surveys compiled by the Institute for Supply Management.

The ISM's own data show that 62% of purchasing managers now cite material availability as their top constraint, up from 44% a year earlier. That shift is concentrated in specialty metals, semiconductor substrates, and certain industrial chemicals where production capacity has not kept pace with demand from the energy transition and defense buildouts.