Situation A Description

A global supplier of denim jeans for apparel companies purchases raw cotton from producers in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas. The bales $(550$ lbs$.$ per$)$ are transported to ports in Houston, New Orleans, Savannah, and Charleston for shipment to denim fabric factories in Shanghai, Karachi, and Saigon. The denim $($a bale of cotton produces approximately $325$ yards of denim fabric$)$ is then shipped to facilities in Chira, India, Japan, Turkey, and Italy for final production of denim jeans.

Tables with shipping costs, supply, and demand for two stages of the production process as presented in the following tables.