The cost of transporting the Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe’s products from its Ukrainian plant to clients has increased by 2.5-3.5 times compared with the pre-war period, the company’s General Director Andrii Korotkov has said.
The company announced this in the statement, the CFTS portal reports.
"Compared with the pre-war period, the cost of transportation from the Ukrainian plant to clients has increased by 2.5-3.5 times. The figures vary greatly depending on various transport schemes. If logistics costs accounted for 3-4% of the cost of production in the pre-war period, then they have now increased at least 2.5 times," he said.
According to Korotkov, several thousand tons of products were on their way to customers after February 24. The situations in the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk were particularly difficult because the products that were supposed to be loaded onto ships were blocked.
"Interpipe has begun transporting products to Europe by road and rail for subsequent transshipment through seaports. However, a new problem has arisen: the number of road transport carriers decreased. No European company provided its vehicles for transportation of products from Dnipro or Nikopol after February 24. At the same time, Ukrainian carriers increased the fees for their services. Moreover, all Ukrainian exporters directed their cargo flows through the nearest Romanian seaports, which turned out to be unable to process the entire volumes of new cargo. For example, the Romanians lacked experience in the transshipment of pipes and railway wheels. However, a new transport system has gradually begun to take shape," the company's general director said.
According to Korotkov, the main ports for shipping Interpipe’s products are Romanian ports. "We are also trying to establish a corridor to the north of Europe. However, these are not Polish ports in Gdansk or Gdynia because they have not handled pipes before. Therefore, we have decided to transship our products through the ports of Belgium and the Netherlands. However, this corridor is an even longer road than the one through Romania," he said.
According to him, it is difficult and expensive to deliver products to the Benelux countries by road or rail. "That is why Interpipe is trying to transport its products to the northwest of Europe via the Danube. Products are first transported by road to the Ukrainian port of Izmail, from where they are transported on a sea barge to the Romanian port of Galati and then transported up the river Danube on barges to the northwest of Europe. For now, these are only test batches," Korotkov said.
