Jan 28, 2017: In a bid to reduce its dependency on third-party delivery companies, Amazon is now taking control of ships. The Seattle-headquartered ecommerce giant has started handling the shipment of goods from merchants in China to its warehouses in the U.S., a service which it previously left to global freight-transportation companies.
The company doesn't have any ships of its own, but is able to organize shipping the containers in other parts of the process, such as transport from warehouses to ports, or booking space on a freighter.
Since October, Amazon has helped to ship some 150 containers of goods from China to the US, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites shipping documents collected at ports of entry.
Amazon just started posting prices for services it could perform in the shipping process, though it used the name of its Chinese subsidiary, Beijing Century Joyo Courier Service Co., the WSJ reports.
Amazon already handles its lorries and planes and with venturing into ocean freight business, the ecommerce major has pitted itself against groups like FedEx and UPS for coordinating the global movement of goods.