Interpipe loses $1.2 mln due to blockade of Polish-Ukrainian border in Nov – logistics director
The Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe, due to the blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border in November of this year, received a total loss or additionally spent $1.2 million, Oleksiy Yanovsky, director of procurement and logistics of the group, told Interfax-Ukraine in response to the corresponding request.
"Under the blockade of the Black Sea ports, the main modes of transport for delivering Interpipe products to clients in 2023 are road and water, which account for a total of 79% of shipped products. At the same time, road transportation to European clients is very important for our company, because over nine months, their share accounted for 38% of all shipped products," Yanovsky said.
According to him, cars with the company's products actively crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border through the Yahodyn - Dorohusk, Krakovets - Korczowa, and Rava-Ruska - Hrebenne crossings, but since November 6 they have been blocked.
"This led to Interpipe not delivering already manufactured products to European customers, and some orders were postponed from November to December. These are our direct losses in November from the strike," the director of procurement and logistics said.
He also said that in addition to this there are also indirect losses. So, in order to avoid blocked checkpoints, the flow of cars was redirected to other free crossings in Slovakia and Romania. The increase in transport leverage led to an increase in the cost of transporting products.
In addition, the load on the Slovak and Romanian crossings has increased, which is why queues have formed there and the idle time of cars has increased.
"Our clients are also preparing to file claims and cancel transactions already concluded. At the same time, Interpipe bought a number of imported goods, which also cannot cross the border due to the blockade. So, we were left without the necessary imports, and European sellers of these goods - without sales to Ukraine," Yanovsky emphasized.
Thus, the total (direct and indirect) losses of Interpipe for November amounted to $1.2 million, the top manager summarized.