How international transportation of equipment works in times of war

The consequences of the military conflict in Ukraine had a significant impact on the transportation and logistics sector: while business was stagnant at the beginning of the war, almost two years later, the speed and quality of transportation began to gradually return to previous levels.

In the face of challenges and constraints, we keep our operations up and running and continue to provide reliable delivery services. This requires not only technical and organizational efforts, but also cooperation with third parties, government agencies and international partners.

In this article, we will explain how international transportation of equipment works in times of war, what challenges our company has faced and examine equipment delivery with real-life examples.

Main challenges of logistics in Ukraine

The military actions on the territory of Ukraine have greatly affected the country’s logistics industry, creating a number of serious problems. One of them is the destroyed infrastructure. As a result of the hostilities, roads, bridges and railroad tracks were destroyed or damaged. This has led to difficulties in cargo delivery and reduced the efficiency of logistics operations.

Market instability and increased demand for logistics services has led to higher fuel, transportation and other operational costs. This, in turn, caused an increase in the cost of cargo delivery.

Despite the difficulties, KTF continues to work and look for ways to overcome the problems that have arisen. To do so, we have found and developed alternative delivery routes, improved the safety and efficiency of our operations, and developed risk management strategies to minimize negative impacts.

How transportation of equipment changed during the war

Changes in the transportation of equipment during the military conflict in Ukraine have affected the way cargo is delivered. Now all equipment is sent by sea exclusively to the European ports.

Previous practices, before the outbreak of hostilities, included two main delivery options:

• Arrival of cargo from the USA to the European port, followed by ground delivery to Ukraine via European countries.
• Transportation of cargo from the USA directly to the Ukrainian port, and then delivery of equipment to the customer’s destination through Ukraine.

The main difference between these options was speed and cost. Transportation through European ports was usually faster, but at the same time more expensive. Through Ukrainian ports the cargo took a little longer, but it was cheaper.

It should be noted that changes in the transportation scheme also affected the organization of logistics processes and delivery costs. In order to work efficiently, we have adapted our strategies and found ways to optimize delivery and keep our prices at a level acceptable to our customers.

How transportation of equipment changed during the war: real examples

In this section, we will dive into the process of transporting equipment from the US and neighboring countries to Ukraine under the conditions of military conflict. We will look not only at the delivery stages and timeframes, but also at the content of the cargo being transported and the key aspects affecting the success of transportation.

Delivery of combine harvester from Canada to Ukraine

Our client purchased a Lexion 470 combine harvester in Canada and turned to us to organize its transportation to Ukraine. During our work we faced several challenges at the stage of planning and realization of delivery, but our experience and professionalism allowed us to successfully cope with them.

Initially it was necessary to choose the most profitable and fastest route for transportation. After careful analysis, it was decided to use the route through American ports, which provided the best cost and delivery time.

But there was a difficulty — the combine was not on the move and could not get on board the ship on its own. To solve this problem we organized transportation of the combine by trawl from Canada to our warehouse in the USA, where it was loaded into a Flat Rack container for further transportation to the port of Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Upon arrival in Klaipeda, the harvester was unloaded from the container and shipped to our warehouse, which saved the customer a lot of money on storage costs at the port. Together with our partners, the combine was delivered directly to the customer’s door in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The total transit time of this project amounted to 38 days, which was achieved thanks to clear coordination and high professional training of our team.

Delivery of sprayer from USA to Ukraine

Our client purchased a sprayer John Deere 4830 in the USA and approached us with a task to organize transportation of his machinery to Ukraine. Our team accepted the challenge and started to plan and implement the transportation process.

The first step was to determine the most optimal route and calculate the cost of delivery. Due to our many years of experience in multimodal transportation of agricultural machinery, we were confident that we could find the best solution for our client. We carefully developed the route, determined the port of departure, the type of sea transportation and the port of destination.

Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) service was chosen for sea transportation. We made the necessary preparation of the machinery at the port of departure to ensure safety and dimension optimization during loading on the vessel. The combine was then loaded onto a vessel bound for the port of Bremerhaven in Germany. Bremerhaven, which is the largest port in Europe for handling oversized cargo, was chosen for the convenience and efficiency of the process.

The transit time for this route was 14 days from port of origin to port of destination. In the port of Bremerhaven, a trawl was waiting for us for further ground transportation to the Kharkiv region. Upon arrival at the port, we carried out the necessary in-port works, issued all necessary documents, including transit import permit (T1), and shipped the combine directly to the Kharkiv region.

In the context of the military conflict in Ukraine, the transportation and logistics sector has undergone significant challenges and changes. Despite the difficulties, KTF continues to operate and provide reliable delivery services, adapting to new conditions and finding solutions to overcome the problems.

We are proud to be able to help our customers in a difficult situation and are ready for new challenges and tasks in the field of international transportation.