Ukraine

Europe’s transport and logistics industry faces new challenges.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Glenn Koepke, GM, Network Collaboration, for Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms. Koepke provided Berman with an overview of the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on North American supply chain and logistics operations, rates, capacity, and other topics.

Most of the discussion around Ukraine centers on energy and commodities. But there may be other supply chain disruptions as a result of the conflict.

The national average, for the week of March 7, came in at $4.849 per gallon, a new high, according to EIA data, topping the previous record, of $4.764, which was set the week of July 14, 2008.

Given the fluidity, uncertainty, and unrest this situation has created, things are anything but predictable, at this point in time, save for a healthy dose of speculation and forecasting, as to how things may play out in the short-term and also how long this conflict could last and continue to foster the unknown in a sense.

The supply chain-related impacts of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine are already significant, due to a whole host of different factors, to be sure. Among those factors, according to various reports, are increasing oil prices, which could be hedged as the White House considers releasing oil from the nation’s strategic oil reserves, should prices escalate, according to a New York Times report, with Russia is the No. 3 producer of oil, after the United States and Saudi Arabia, pumping roughly 10%...