Peloton weighs moving bike, treadmill production closer to US

Panama Canal bids hit $5M as El Niño reduces transits

Peloton is considering moving some production of its bikes and treadmills closer to the United States to make its supply chain more flexible and resilient, according to Chief Operating Officer Charles Kirol. Kirol spoke at a Dow Jones Risk Journal event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Having flexibility and optionality is incredibly important,” Kirol said. “And sometimes you have to pay a little bit for that to protect your supply chain.”

Peloton largely relies today on manufacturers in Taiwan and China — a shift from a pandemic-era strategy to bring production in-house, according to the WSJ Logistics Report. The changing approach to where Peloton makes its equipment is part of how the company is looking to minimize supply-chain disruptions after the global tumult of the past six years, Kirol said at a Dow Jones Risk Journal event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Elsewhere in the WSJ Logistics Report, intermodal containers and trailers carried on US railroads in the week ended Sept. 19 rose 6.9% from a year earlier, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Some large cargo ships have recently paid up to $5 million to pass through the Panama Canal, according to Ilya Espino de Marotta, who was recently appointed as canal administrator. The recent bids to use the 50-mile interoceanic waterway reflect the canal’s crucial role at a time when shipping companies have been forced to shift maritime routes.

Canal transits rose earlier this year as the conflict between the US and Iran escalated, though the number of crossings has been reduced recently by canal authorities because of an emerging El Niño. Forecast to be especially strong, the weather event is disrupting energy markets and coastal infrastructure, putting more upward pressure on Panama Canal transit prices.

In a separate item from the same newsletter, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration will pursue voluntary restrictions on diesel exports rather than an outright ban, characterizing the approach as voluntary and clarifying remarks President Trump made Tuesday that the administration was considering diesel export restrictions. Wright said the administration must keep the world supplied with diesel while changing the trajectory of US prices.

The oil and gas industry had scrambled to head off the curbs, warning that any ban would throttle US supply of diesel and gasoline and lead to higher prices. The industry doesn’t expect a ban to be imminent and still hopes to kill the idea, urging the administration to relax authorization requirements for Jones Act waivers and hoping Trump can push China to churn out and export more fuel.