General Electric reported a decline in sales for its healthcare business as supply shortages made the company unable to fill all of its orders for medical equipment, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The company reported healthcare sales fell 5 percent, to $4.34 billion, in its third quarter financial results released Oct. 26. GE said sales would have been up 4 percent in the third quarter if it had been able to fill all of its orders for MRI machines, CT scanners and other hospital equipment, according to the Journal.
"We're feeling the impact of supply chain disruptions in many of our businesses, with the largest impact to date in healthcare," GE CEO Larry Culp said in a conference call Oct. 26, the Journal reported. "I'm not sure we're yet at a place where we would say that things are stable. We may have improvements in one commodity or in one business. But almost without fail, the next day, a commodity, a supplier, a logistics provider that we thought was good for the next six weeks or the next six months offers up a revision to that outlook."
The company expects supply challenges to continue into the first half of 2022, the Journal reported. It had warned in September that shortages of supplies, including semiconductors and resins, were hurting its healthcare unit.
But it did make two small healthcare acquisitions this year, recently buying the medical imaging company BK Medical for $1.45 billion.
Read the Journal's full article here.