Maritime News | Supply Lines
On the same day that President Joe Biden met with the heads of major retailers such as Walmart and Kroger about supply issues, the nation’s consumer watchdog started a probe into what’s caused “empty shelves and sky-high prices.”
The Federal Trade Commission has given nine major retailers, wholesalers and goods suppliers including Walmart, Kroger, Amazon.com, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Heinz 45 days to provide information on the causes of supply-chain problems, it said in a statement.
The FTC wants them to provide internal documents regarding the disruptions, including “strategies related to supply chains; pricing; marketing and promotions; costs, profit margins and sales volumes; selection of suppliers and brands; and market shares.”
The watchdog seeks to determine whether the logjams “are leading to specific bottlenecks, shortages, anticompetitive practices, or contributing to rising consumer prices.”
In addition, the agency asked for “voluntary comments” that could “provide an opportunity for market participants to surface additional issues and examples of how supply chain disruptions are affecting competition,” the statement said.
Price Pressures Run Hot
U.S. October headline inflation increased by the most since 1990 on annual basis
The cost of goods measured by the consumer price index climbed 6.2% last month from a year earlier, the fastest annual pace since 1990. While many economists believe the spike is due to unprecedented consumer demand following the pandemic shutdowns, Republicans have blamed Biden and his economic policies.
With Biden’s approval ratings flagging, the White House has been trying to show both empathy and action on Biden’s part with regard to inflation and its impact on American pocketbooks heading into the holiday season.
Biden postponed a speech on supply-chain troubles and the economy planned for Monday afternoon so he had enough time with the retail CEOs, a White House official said. He’ll deliver the speech on Wednesday instead.
Charted Territory
Measuring the Bottleneck
Container ships waiting outside Los Angeles-Long Beach total more than 50
The number of container ships waiting in the official queue to offload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, has come down sharply in the past two weeks. But officials who monitor cargo vessels crossing the Pacific toward the largest U.S. port complex attribute that drop more to the declining speed of arriving ships — many of which are outside the area to be counted in the official tally — than to faster movement of containers across the docks. Officials who monitor marine traffic in San Pedro Bay are developing a methodology to account for those ships. Meanwhile, the average wait for a berth in Los Angeles was 18.8 days as of late Monday, up from 13.4 a month ago, and the number of inbound containers over the next two weeks is currently projected to be higher than year-ago levels.
Source : Bloomberg
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