Inter Ikea Group, responsible for strategy at Ikea, is warning that some Ikea products may be unavailable while it manages the volatile situation at the Suez Canal. Attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have disrupted passage.
“We are in close dialogue with our transportation partners to ensure the safety of people working in the IKEA value chain and to take all the necessary precautions to keep them safe,” an Inter Ikea Group spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “This is our main priority.”
The company is evaluating possible alternatives. Because Ikea doesn’t own its own container vessels, its freight partners manage all of its shipments, the spokesperson said.
The violence at the Suez Canal, a response by the rebels to the war in Gaza, is coming late in the year. Most holiday merchandise is likely on shelves (if not already snapped up by shoppers), but Ikea’s warning is a sign that the disruption to the supply chain has already started. Delays and cost spikes are increasingly likely, as several shippers have been taking precautions and an increasing number are avoiding the route entirely.
The U.S. Department of Defense earlier this week announced “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” a multinational security initiative of the Combined Maritime Forces that is working with the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain to address “security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.”
The trouble around the Suez isn’t the only challenge to ocean freight at the moment. Developments there are unfolding as low water levels due to severe drought have prompted restrictions at the Panama Canal that are set to continue into 2024.
