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On October 7, Todd Varneck, CEO of North America’s largest furniture manufacturer Ai Shili, revealed in an interview with the Home Improvement Association of America (HFA) that the supply chain may deteriorate in the next 3 to 4 months, and furniture delivery may require Postponed for 6 months.

During the interview, he talked about the Vietnamese blockade, the ubiquitous container and transportation issues, and how he solved the labor shortage.

"Asia's supply chain is under tremendous pressure, and we are in a difficult time." Todd Varneck said.

Regarding furniture imported from Vietnam, he said: "Imported bedrooms, dining rooms and wooden furniture are in the worst situation. Exports of any products with wooden finishes are severely restricted."

Vaneck urged retailers to prepare for a four to six month delay for imported restaurant furniture and at least six months for wooden bedroom furniture.

Due to the need for a long finishing production line, the supply of wood is a more serious problem. Vaneck believes that upholstered furniture is relatively not that bad.

According to Vanek, the current exports of goods from Asia are about 30% of the normal level, and about 20% a week ago. Until February 2022, export levels may be close to 70% to 80% of normal times.

However, an emerging issue is the search for labor. In the past four weeks, tens of thousands of Vietnamese have escaped the blockade and returned to the countryside. Unless the lockdown is repeated, Vaneck predicts that these workers may begin to return when the epidemic eases in early 2022, but he does not have great confidence in this prediction.

In terms of supply chain, Vaneck said that the transportation on the west coast of the United States still has the problem of containers, and many ports have labor shortages. In the past, it took one day for a ship to unload, but now it takes at least three days.

Container prices are not expected to decline until at least 2023. Currently, it costs US$10,000 to transport a container from one port to another.

He said that for the first time, manufacturers and retailers have lost control of their supply chains. But Ai Shili has been taking measures to regain control.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the company has added a number of new factories in the United States. Vanek said the company is upgrading its domestic upholstered furniture and boxed merchandise as quickly as possible. He also invested in technologies such as factory automation and plans to expand production capacity in Mexico in the next 12 months.

"More local factories, better control of the supply chain, as much as possible to become a manufacturer producing and supplying in the United States." Waneck said.