Furniture Industry Takes Additional Hit With Suez Canal Jam

ACROSS AMERICA — Americans hoping to welcome people back into their homes this fall should put their order in now for new furniture as the industry’s global supply chain, already under strain because of the coronavirus pandemic, took an additional hit last week when a massive cargo ship became stuck in the Suez Canal.

Several home furnishing companies have said the demand for new furniture has skyrocketed so much since more Americans became home-bound because of the pandemic that the current supply of raw materials and workers have struggled to keep up.

COVID-19 safety guidelines have put the crunch on furniture companies, forcing them to reduce the number of staff working in a facility and slowing the time it takes to fulfill orders, according to The Dayton Daily News. If an outbreak were to occur that could completely shut down a production line, further delaying things.

Robert Klaben, vice president of communications for Ohio-based Morris Furniture, told the paper that it could take up to four months for furniture to get to a customer.

“With many parts and products sourced from overseas facilities, many American manufacturers have seen delays of up to 120 days getting much needed supplies to complete production,” he said. “A shortage of delivery drivers and shipping containers has also created delays to consumers.”

Andy Counts, CEO for the American Home Furnishings Alliance, called the furniture industry "very global" in an interview with the Daily News, saying 90 percent of wooden furniture and 50 percent of upholstered furniture come from overseas. A lot of components used in assembling furniture domestically are also imported, he said.

A disruption to overseas shipping made things worse for the furniture industry when the cargo ship Ever Given became trapped in the Suez Canal on March 23. The narrow waterway accounts for roughly 13 percent of the global shipping trade, according to The Washington Post.

Although the ship was freed on Monday it may take more than a week for the hundreds of cargo ships, carrying everything from lumber to oil, that were waylaid by the incident to make their way through the canal.

Furniture giant IKEA told Agence France-Presse the company has 110 containers filled with its products on the affected ships and it was figuring out how to keep items in stock for customers in the United States and elsewhere.

“The blockage of the Suez Canal is an additional constraint to an already challenging and volatile situation for global supply chains brought on by the pandemic,” the spokesperson told the news agency.