Ukraine is one of the gateways to the land network on which China relies to develop its trade with western European countries.
Unfortunately, the European Union sanctions imposed on Russian businesses put the whole world in a precarious situation. Several ocean carriers, airlines and freight forwarders have also confirmed that they will be suspending their services from and to Russia. This leaves thousands of companies having to find other alternatives to their shipping needs.
Since prices for air freight are normally higher than those of ocean carriage, companies are increasingly using ocean freight between these regions. Regrettably, and partly due to this war conflict, this situation adds congestion in some of the most important port terminals involved in this trade corridor, putting additional pressure on the new and existing international supply chains which still try to overcome their labor shortage issues caused by the pandemic.