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Operational Update for Customers / 02 March 2026
Middle East Situation
The current conflict in the Middle East is having a significant impact on global supply chains, particularly across key Europe–Asia trade lanes. Both ocean and air freight operations are affected, resulting in changes to transit times, routing options and cost structures.
Sea Freight: Major shipping areas such as the Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea, Bab al‑Mandab and the Suez Canal are impacted. Effects include longer transit times (+10–20 days), rerouting, equipment shortages and rising rates including war‑risk surcharges.
Air Freight: Several countries (including Iran, Iraq, Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE) have fully or partially closed their airspace. This leads to capacity shortages, rerouting, delays and short-term rate increases.
Given the current situation, customers should anticipate:
- Less predictable transit times
- Potential rerouting of shipments
- Capacity constraints in both ocean and air freight
- Short-term cost fluctuations
New sea and air freight bookings must be explicitly confirmed before dispatch, and additional time buffers are essential. For time‑critical shipments, early coordination with our teams is strongly recommended.
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Global issue / since February 2022
Booking stop to/from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine
Please note that we no longer load direct consignments to/from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
If you have any further questions, please contact your local representative.
Our company’s headquarters are in Hamburg, the gateway to the world. From here, we plan, manage and perform transport and logistics services for you around the globe. From door to door.
Here in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, 420 a. hartrodt Deutschland (GmbH & Co) KG employees are hard at work handling the services associated with the shipment of your goods and your project’s logistics needs. This includes imports and exports, the management of global supply chains and other industry-specific solutions. Our management holding operations for central areas like IT and finance are also overseen in Hamburg.
To ensure maximum reliability and the best quality when handling your goods, all of the tasks involved with your project – from transhipment to customs clearances – are performed from a single source. We have our own logistics network consisting of 69 operative subsidiaries and partners in 47 countries to guarantee this full service.
Are you looking for a fast and safe way to ship your goods? We open the gateway to wherever you want to go in the world.
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