On a hot summer’s day in Derbyshire, Christopher Nieper is worried about getting cloth from Shanghai to his factory in the former mining town of Alfreton.
For three months over the spring and early summer he had a container full of fabric stuck in the port of Shanghai while the Chinese city was locked down because of Covid. Eventually, to avoid waiting any longer, he paid an extra €5,000 (£4,200) to have it air freighted, first to France, and then on to the East Midlands.
