Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is importing more goods to the United States from India and reducing its dependence on China.
Between January and August this year, Walmart shipped 25 percent of its U.S. imports from India. That compares to just 2 percent in 2018. Import Yeti, a data company, shared this information with Reuters. The same data shows that only 60 percent of Walmart’s imports came from China during the same period, down from 80 percent in 2018. China is still Walmart’s biggest country for importing goods.
The shift shows how the rising cost of importing from China and increased tension between China and the U.S. are leading American companies to import from other countries. Those countries include India, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Andrea Albright is Walmart’s executive vice president of sourcing. She said, “We want the best prices.” She added that Walmart has to deal with natural disasters to shortages in materials and cannot be dependent on any one supplier or area for products.
Chris Rogers, a researcher at S&P Global Market Intelligence’s supply chain research group Panjiva, said, “Sourcing from mainland China has become less competitive because of rising labor costs versus other manufacturing centers.”
Walmart said the import information did not mean that it was reducing dependence on any of its markets. “We’re a growth business and are working to source more manufacturing capacity,” the company said in a statement. Albright added that India has become an important part of Walmart’s efforts to build that manufacturing capacity.
Walmart has been increasing growth in India since 2018. It bought 77 percent of shares in the online company Flipkart. Two years later, it promised to import $10 billion worth of goods from India each year by 2027. Albright said the company is on its way to meet the target. Currently the company is importing close to $3 billion worth of goods from India each year.
