Under Armour says transporting goods is now its biggest concern

Under Armour Inc. is a lot more concerned about transporting goods than manufacturing them, as global supply chains remain stricken by delays that have hobbled international trade.

Factory closures in key production hubs like Vietnam due to Covid-related lockdowns have largely ended, with plants reopened but running at limited capacity. Executives said it’ll take the remainder of the year to get them fully operational, and they’ve trimmed orders to cope with that.

Now the bigger worry for major producers of consumer goods is the shipping logjam. Chief Executive Officer Patrik Frisk said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday that there’s “congestion at every step of the chain,” with problems like a lack of containers, port-access issues and slow unloading processes. He expects transit times to be longer than usual over the next several quarters due to backlogs.

Management said the Baltimore-based company has paid for more air freight than it has wanted, and will be forced to keep resorting to that more expensive option in the first half of next year.

“We see logistics and shipment being the biggest concern for us,” Frisk said. “We have to be strategic, right, in what we’re actually delivering into the market based on the capacity that we’re able to get through the pipes.”