News / Walmart dips into vessel charter market to ease supply chain difficulties in H2

One of the world’s largest shippers, Walmart in the US, says it has chartered vessels to meet demand for goods as supply chain disruptions continue to threaten sales.

Walmart president and CEO John Furner said the company had raised its inventory by 20% over the past six months and was in a good position to meet the “cost pressures” it expects in the third and fourth quarters.

According to EVP and CFO Brett Biggs, speaking during a results broadcast on Tuesday Walmart had benefited from the US government stimulus and, as a result, had seen $2.4bn year-on-year growth in food sales. Now it was looking forward to a strong ‘back to school’ period.

However, Mr Biggs added that the current supply chain issues were a major problem.

“We need to mitigate these and that’s why we chartered vessels specifically for Walmart goods,” he explained

Walmart is experiencing significant growth, particularly in the US, where Mr Biggs said there would be growth of 11%-12% over the full year.

He said the company “was evolving”, with increasing e-commerce demand meaning Walmart was developing new fulfilment centres to meet that demand.

The company did not, however, give any specifics of its ocean chartering venture.