Amazon bulks up shipping capacity to battle holiday season snarls

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it had doubled its container processing capacity and secured more shipping storage from ocean freight carriers to try to overcome supply chain bottlenecks in time for the holiday shopping season.

The stop-and-start nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has snarled global supply chains that are optimized for just-in-time movement of goods, while labor and equipment shortages and a lack of space to store products have exacerbated the situation.

Amazon, which plans to hire 150,000 seasonal workers in the United States during the holiday period, said it had also increased ports of entry across its network by 50%.

The e-commerce giant is not the only company trying to use its scale and deep pockets to muscle its way through supply chain headaches.

Retailers including Walmart Inc, Target Corp and Home Depot have said they are chartering ships to deal with the pandemic-driven slowdown of sea networks that handle 90% of the world's trade.

President Joe Biden earlier this month urged the private sector to help ease supply chain blockages by expanding overnight operations at the ports to try to meet delivery needs.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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