Factories Facing Supply Headaches as Omicron Risks Emerge

Factories Facing Supply Headaches as Omicron Risks Emerge
An employee measures a newly manufactured ball mill machine at a factory in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China, on June 28, 2019. Stringer/Reuters
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LONDON/TOKYO—Global factory activity accelerated in November although crippling supply bottlenecks remained, putting a cap on output and driving up the cost of raw materials, according to surveys published on Wednesday.

Towards the end of the month, the newly-detected Omicron coronavirus variant emerged as a fresh worry for policymakers, who are already trying to pilot recovering economies and tamp-down inflation.