Both Kuehne + Nagel International AG in Switzerland and DB Schenker in Germany have issued customer advisories stating that deliveries to and from Russia by air, land, and sea have been halted. DSV A/S, based in Denmark, and Geodis, based in France, both announced a halt in deliveries to Moscow ally Belarus.
“Knowing that today’s decision to suspend transport to and from Russia and Belarus will further add to the supply chain disruption and complexity for our customers, we want to underline that…we are doing our utmost to alleviate the negative supply chain effects from these measures,” DSV said in a notice on Thursday.
Marketplace for digital cargo According to Freightos, the disruptions in services and transportation connections to Russia, combined with rising oil prices, threaten to drive up shipping costs for businesses worldwide.
According to Freightos, some airfreight carriers are already implementing war-risk surcharges to cover rising operating costs. The redirection of ocean freight shipments to other ports "is already causing pileups at origin ports in Europe and elsewhere, potentially causing congestion and increasing rates on these lanes," according to the company.
DHL, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post AG, had previously suspended handling of inbound shipments to Russia.
According to research firm Armstrong & Associates, the world's four largest freight forwarders by revenue are DHL, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, and DSV, with Geodis ranking ninth.
Container shipping lines A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, Mediterranean Shipping Co., and CMA CGM SA suspended freight services to and from Russia earlier this week, with exceptions for foodstuffs, medical shipments, and humanitarian aid.
Many major freight operators have already halted operations in Ukraine, closing offices and instructing employees to return home.
Geodis also announced the suspension of bookings for Asia-Europe freight rail services, an overland corridor that has grown in popularity in the last two years as shippers and freight operators sought to avoid pandemic-related port congestion, which has slowed ocean transport. According to the company, it is increasing its use of chartered 747 freighters for China-Europe operations to compensate for reduced services from commercial airlines attempting to avoid flying through Russian airspace.
According to Freightos, the equivalent of 10,000 containers travel by rail from Asia to Europe each week. "If sanctions or fear of disruption cause significant numbers of containers to shift from rail to ocean, this new demand will put upward pressure on Asia-Europe rates as more shippers compete for already scarce capacity," the company said.