# Volatile Freight Rates in Maritime Container Industry in Times of Crises
###### Abstract  
In recent years, the stability of supply chains has been undermined due to many disruptions. Although it is normal for the disruptions in supply chains to occur periodically, they have great impact on the rise of the costs and they create strong imbalances in business. For years, most world trade has been performed by maritime transport due its cost-effectiveness. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain like nothing before, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has only deepened the crisis that is affecting the global supply chain. The focus of this paper has been placed on volatile freight rates in the maritime container industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequences of these crises on the changes of the prices of consumer goods in the European Union.  
supply chain; volatile freight rates; maritime container industry; crises +
Footnote †: journal: Applied  
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Footnote 1: institutetext: Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb, Vukaliceva 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia  
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Besides the obvious efficiency, maritime transport is also cost-effective, which is its key characteristic that has enabled this transport mode to occupy the central role in global trading [9]. Social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have spread globally almost as quickly as the virus itself [10]. The pandemic has caused rises in freight rates in the maritime container industry that have never been recorded before. This unprecedented rise in freight rates we have been witnessing for over two years now has been additionally intensified by the closing of the Suez Canal in March 2021 [11] and the Russian invasion of Ukraine [12; 13]. It is expected that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will have the biggest impact on the maritime market, first and foremost in the form of the higher transportation prices [12]. Generally, because of the effects of the above-mentioned events, the recovery of the global economy will be undermined due to the rapid rise of the freight rates in the maritime container industry [14]. The increase in freight rates has already been influencing the prices of the products that arrive to their final consumer market via the containers shipped along the maritime routes, and it is not very likely that this impact will soften in the near future.  
The focus of this paper, in line with the above-mentioned facts, is the volatile freight rates in maritime container industry in times of crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, the paper will analyze the impact of the volatile freight rates in maritime container industry on the prices of consumer goods in the European Union. Current scientific papers do not address the topic of the impact of crises on volatile freight rates in the maritime container industry and their overall impact on the changes of the prices of consumer goods in the European Union. This paper combines all previous research with particular focus on volatile freight rates in the maritime container industry in times of crises, with special reference to the changes of the New ConTex index and the EU consumer price index in order to determine the impact of freight rate volatility on the prices of consumer goods. Furthermore, the values of the global maritime container freight index have been presented with the aim of comparing the freight rates on the global container market and the European container market.  
The introduction is followed by the literature review that explores the maritime container market in the pandemic times and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The third section concentrates on the impact the crises have on the maritime container industry, and the analysis of the maritime freight rates. Concluding remarks are presented in the fourth section.  
Literature Review on the Maritime Container Industry in the Times of the Pandemic and the Russian Invasion on Ukraine