In what seems to be a growing trend of addressing liner shortfalls by throwing money at box manufacturers, the world’s largest furniture retailer is ordering its own containers to independently charter vessels.
Ikea is also not the first to get around the nagging unavailability of boxes by buying its own containers, as Walmart and Home Depo have already taken this course of action.
Responding to news inquiries about the move, Ikea said it was the logical move as container lag continued to put pressure on supply chains worldwide.
It also mentioned that massive hold-ups caused by the Ever Given fiasco in the Suez Canal, when a very large container vessel first got stuck before being seized by Egyptian authorities in Great Bitter Lakes, added to persisting shipment headaches.
““Congestion in ports, combined with historically high demand, has created an imbalance in the entire world market for maritime transport,” Ikea product deliveries director, Mikael Redin, told Swedish daily, Svenska Dagbladet.
The purchase of containers by multinational shippers is widely regarded as a game-changer for the ocean carrier industry, but the jury is still out about hidden costs and how these could potentially scupper containerisation efforts by Ikea and the like.
