Shortages

[HONDO74]

Costco is renting 3 container ships and 'several thousand containers' to shield itself from supply-chain delays and rising costs
https://news.yahoo.com/costco-renting-3 ... 15623.html


Costco is looking to protect itself against rising freight costs. Noam Galai/Getty Images

Costco is renting its own container ships to import products from Asia to the US and Canada.

It wants to sidestep the global shipping crisis and shield itself from shortages and rising costs.

It's also renting "several thousand" containers, Costco CFO Richard Galanti said.

Costco has joined Home Depot in renting its own container ships to prevent delays and keep costs down as the global shipping crisis rages on.

In a call with analysts Thursday, Costco CFO Richard Galanti said the company had chartered three ships to import products from Asia to the US and Canada. This would help Costco avoid spending six times the normal price on shipping or containers through a third party, he said.

Each ship could carry between 800 and 1,000 containers at a time, he said. The company had also leased "several thousand containers for use on these ships," he said.

Costco expected to make about 10 deliveries over the next year using these ships, accounting for about 20% of its imports from Asia, he said.

The big-box chain is among a large group of retailers grappling with an ongoing supply-chain crisis that's causing delays and shortages.

[robert.]

I can’t see how this will speed things up. I can see it being a cost cutting measure.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Does not circumvent the docking and unloading bottlenecks.....that seems to be a very real issue......unless they are going to try to get some sort of favored access at one of the smaller ports.

This also demonstrates the fragility of a consumer economy that's based on imports.