- The Swedish furniture giant acknowledged unavailability of certain items in its stores, including in the Philippines, due to the “global transport crisis”
- IKEA cited “global shortage of shipping containers, congested seaports, capacity constraints on vessels, and even lockdown in certain markets” as having caused supply challenges
- The company opened its shop in the Philippines, its biggest worldwide, covering 700,000 square feet in November 2021
Sorry, fans of IKEA. Some stocks in the Swedish furniture giant’s stores, including in the Philippines, are unavailable due to the “global transport crisis”.
In a statement on its Facebook page titled “We’re all in the same boat”, IKEA, said: “The COVID-19 outbreak disrupted the global movement of supply and goods for many business, including the IKEA Philippines.”
IKEA opened its shop in the Philippines, its biggest worldwide, covering 700,000 square feet in November 2021.
The company acknowledged the unavailability of certain items due to challenges such as “global shortage of shipping containers, congested seaports, capacity constraints on vessels, and even lockdown in certain markets.”
But the company said “stock availability is improving day by day.”
Supply chain issues that rocked 2021 look set to continue into 2022 as the world struggles to deal with uncertainty over COVID-19 and the new variants associated with it, according to a recent report from Transport Intelligence (Ti) Insight.
READ: Supply chain issues that look set to continue into 2022
The whitepaper said the COVID crisis has led to disruption of production, especially across Asia, as a result of the impacts of government lockdowns, a coal shortage, and difficulty among many emerging market exporters in accessing trade finance, which is critical to the functioning of many global supply chains.
“This challenging manufacturing environment has been exacerbated by ‘lumpy’ demand from Western customers, struggling to understand their own markets. This has resulted in a stop-start pattern to both orders and fulfilment, wreaking havoc with inventory management and, most egregiously, with the capacity planning of shipping lines,” the report said.
