Les réseaux invisibles qui animent l’économie mondiale – Les 5 maillons faibles

Câbles, pipelines, routes, détroits maritimes, routes aériennes et satellites forment le réseau fragile sur lequel repose l’économie mondiale. Il s’agit de réseaux invisibles d’une importance capitale pour la chaîne d’approvisionnement mondiale et la vie moderne, mais dont on ne se souvient que lorsqu’une guerre comme celle en Ukraine ou en Israël menace l’un de ces points stratégiques. Une étude de la Deutsche Bank met en lumière les cinq maillons faibles de l'économie mondiale. Autrement dit, les infrastructures ne peuvent pas être remplacées par une alternative et peuvent donc bloquer la chaîne d’approvisionnement mondiale.

There are some vulnerabilities in the global economy that are more or less known to everyone, such as Taiwan's semiconductor factories, global financial centers and the 0.5% of subway stations in London and Paris that could block the half network.

But there are also the invisible but very important networks, as was shown by the damage done to an undersea gas pipeline and telecommunications cable between Finland and Estonia on October 10, reminiscent of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline a year ago. In 2010, the eruption of a volcano in Iceland "grounded" one second of Europe's air traffic for 8 days, notes Deutsche Bank.

L’Ukraine et Israël sont situés à proximité de points aussi importants pour l’économie mondiale.

1. Câbles et conducteurs

– Câbles de données : Up to 99% of the world's digital communications as well as 10 trillion financial transactions. dollars, pass through fiber optic cables located on the sea floor. There are approximately 550 active and planned cables, spanning 1.4 million kilometres. Many are barely thicker than a watering can, explains Deutsche Bank. These cables are vulnerable to espionage and sabotage and to accidental damage.

– Câbles électriques sous-marins : Les interconnexions électriques permettent aux pays d’acheter de l’énergie éolienne ou solaire moins chère à leurs voisins bénéficiant de conditions météorologiques plus favorables, augmentant ainsi la sécurité de l’approvisionnement et permettant de mieux gérer la demande. Mais ils peuvent être détruits par sabotage ou par accident.

– Gazoducs : L’Europe dépend des gazoducs pour la plupart de ses approvisionnements en gaz naturel. En 2020, elle a importé près de 401 TP3T de son gaz naturel de Russie, et depuis lors, elle a dû s'appuyer sur des gazoducs en provenance de Norvège et importer du GNL. Comme l’ont montré les explosions du Nord Stream, ces pipelines sont vulnérables au sabotage.

– Oléoducs : Most of the world's oil pipelines are located in Europe and Asia and start from Russia. A typical oil pipeline is about 50 centimeters in diameter and can carry over 1 million liters (or 6.300 barrels per hour). By comparison, a barrel can carry less than 200 barrels at a time. Pipelines are made of steel and, where possible, are buried in the ground. Like natural gas pipelines, they are vulnerable to damage, earthquakes and sabotage.

2. Routes, voies ferrées et rivières

Some railways and roads in far-flung places carry a disproportionately large share of supplies critical to the global economy, with no alternatives. A vast area in the Congo and Zambia, for example, is Africa's largest producer of copper and accounts for two-thirds of the world's cobalt production. But there are only four roads, all bad and congested, to transport these raw materials from the mines to ports in Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania. Something similar is happening with Brazil's soy, which is the world's No. 1 exporter. In the last two years, drought has hit rivers that are vital waterways, showing how vulnerable these transports are.

3. Détroits maritimes

Along with the Cape of Good Hope, there are 8 important "straits" for sea transport. As Deutsche Bank explains, these are the five "keys that unlocked the world" for the British Empire, if the Straits of Dover are removed and the Panama Canal, the Turkish Straits, the Straits of Bab el Madeb and the Straits of Hormuz are added . In oil, for example, more than 60% of supply is transported by sea, with the Straits of Hormuz being the most important point for the market, since a fifth of the world's consumption (and a third of LNG) passes through it. At its narrowest point, the Straits of Hormuz are only 33 kilometers wide.

Ces détroits sont vulnérables aux blocus, aux collisions ou échouements de navires, aux pirates, aux attaques terroristes, aux guerres et aux accidents tels que les marées noires.

4. Pistes d'atterrissage

Air transport depends on an invisible network of corridors that can be disrupted by weather, wars or unusual events, such as when Spain's airspace was closed last November to allow a Chinese missile to enter Earth's atmosphere. Strikes by air traffic controllers have caused major transport problems in Europe this year, while the biggest post-war air traffic blockade occurred in 2010, when the volcano in Iceland erupted.

5. Satellites

The world is very dependent on the US Global Positioning System (GPS). This uses approximately 30 Earth-orbiting Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) satellites, which send signals to over 4 billion users worldwide. But these signals are weak and prone to interference, and it has been estimated that if GPS is "cut", the cost will exceed $1 billion a day, just for the US.

(SOURCE : https://www.moneyreview.gr/business-and-finance/125480/deutsche-bank-ta-aorata-diktya-poy-kinoyn-tin-pagkosmia-oikonomia-oi-5-adynamoi-krikoi/)