War in Ukraine: The impact on international transport

However, the collateral effects of this war are numerous and have a real impact on freight, whatever the type of goods or mode of transport.

One crisis after another for international freight

Since 2019, the international trade sector has been struggling to cope with the economic and health crisis caused by Covid-19. Recently, global demand has been picking up, even leading to higher transport rates and a bottleneck in global freight transport.

Air transport hard hit by the war

Without a doubt, air transport is the most affected by this situation. Many airlines such as Volga-Dnepr, ANA, JAL or Lufthansa Cargo have reduced or stopped their operations between Europe and Asia.

The China-Europe and South Korea-Europe air routes have been extended. Russian airspace is closed. This makes it impossible to fly over Siberia, so it is necessary to go via Turkey and Kazakhstan.

However, these longer journeys increase fuel consumption, while paraffin has already increased by 27.5% in the week of 4 March. In addition, aircraft have less payload as they have to carry more fuel.

As a result, the supply of air freight has contracted by 20%. Short term rates have increased by 40% according to Arthur Barillas, founder of Ovresea