The rise in fuel costs

It is devastating to see what is happening in Europe right now. On Thursday 24 February, Russia decided to attack Ukraine, triggering a conflict in Europe not seen since the Second World War. This is causing a humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighbouring European countries, as well as wreaking havoc on the economy.  

We are witnessing a sudden and totally out-of-control increase in the price of most raw materials: maize, wheat, sugar, but above all, gas and oil. 

According to ADAC (Europe's largest automobile association), petrol and diesel prices in Germany crossed the EUR 2 mark for the first time this month, increasing by 26% and 35% respectively when compared to December last year. 

With the tightening of economic sanctions against Russia, fuel prices are likely to continue rising, dragging up the prices of all those products whose production depends on the use of non-renewable energy sources.

While the fuel prices are on the raise in Europe, it is not much better in America.  

With President Biden's embargo on Russian oil, the average price per gallon has reached $4.43 (in some parts of the country, such as Los Angeles, the price has reached around $7 per gallon), an increase of $0.89 in the last two weeks.

In absolute terms, prices this high have not been seen since the July 2008 crisis, when a gallon of gasoline cost an average of $4.11 in the United States ($5.37 when adjusted for inflation).  

 Unfortunately, the shipping container trading business is not immune to certain changes on a global scale. While we manage to keep the cost of our shipping containers low and competitive, we are being charges with much higher transport invoices from our transpoprt companies, due to the increased fuel prices they have to pay.

We hope you can understand this change, with the hope that we can return to much needed "normalcy" as soon as possible.