Nike hastened to solve the problems of the supply chain against the imminent purchases of the Christmas season

Hong Kong (CNN Business) - If you already put on your list a new pair of Nike shoes for these parties, you may have to wait a little.

The sportswear giant warned that the problems of the supply chain, globally caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, will impact their production and the delivery of their products worldwide until next Boreal spring.

Nike is dealing with problems ranging from the shortage of transport containers to the scarcity of workers, said the company this Thursday, adding that it also faces manufacturing problems due to local closures in their factories in Vietnam and Indonesia.

"We are not immune to the obstacles of the global supply chain that are challenging [manufacturing] and the movement of products worldwide," said financial director Matthew Friend in a gain call.

"We hope that all geographies will be affected by these factors."

The problems forced Nike to cut their sales prospects for the whole year this Thursday, although Friend said that "consumer demand has never been greater."

The problems of the supply chain have already weighed in the most recent profits of the company.The results of the quarter that ended in August were mixed, with income that did not meet the expectations of analysts, but with net income that exceeded the forecasts, according to Refinitiv data.

Friend stressed that the company's results would have been "more solid if it were not for the congestion of the supply chain, which has caused a lack of available offer."

The news of the most gloomy perspectives caused Nike's actions to fall more than 4% in the operations prior to Friday's market.

The company now expects that the income for this fiscal year grows in a single digit, compared to its previous two -digit growth orientation compared to the previous year.

Headaches in the supply chain

According to Friend, "the situation has deteriorated even more" in recent months.

Nike manufactures about three quarters of its shoes in Southeast Asia, with 51% and 24% of manufacturing in Vietnam and Indonesia, respectively.

But the company related to pandemic, which have forced the factories to have recently affected the company.In Vietnam, for example, it has lost 10 weeks of production since July.

Meanwhile, the time to take its products from Asia to North America has doubled, going from about 40 to 80 days, according to Friend.

"In the last 90 days two things have happened in the industry that we had not planned. In the first place, the transit times, already long, worsened; and secondly, local governments ordered closures in Vietnam and Indonesia,", analysts told Thursday.

"Today, Indonesia is fully operational. But in Vietnam, almost all footwear factories are still closed by government mandate."

The Executive said there were plans to reopen some facilities in stages, but predicted that "a gap will continue until factories can reopen and produce normal capacity."

Nike has also been paralyzed in other regions.

In North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, their teams have registered an increase in transit times, largely due to "the port and rail congestion and the shortage of labor," according to the financial director.

The world supply chains have been altered by the sequelae of the pandemic, which has caused the shortage of consumer products and has increased the sending of goods to the companies that need them.

Unresolved inconveniences and the appearance of new problems, such as the Delta variant, make buyers face higher prices and less options in this season of festivities.

Other retailers, such as Adidas, Crocs and Hasbro, have already warned that there will be interruptions while preparing for the crucial end of the year period.Book vendors are also urging customers to make their Christmas orders in advance.

Transport companies expect the global crisis to continue.This is greatly increasing the cost of transporting goods and could increase the upward pressure of consumption prices.

In response to the crisis, Nike said Thursday that he was planning to spend more on air transport for the holiday season.

"[We are going to] manage all the levers that we can in this restriction environment of the supply chain," said CEO John Donahoe.

- Hanna Ziady contributed to this report.