Alkagesta chief executive Orkhan Rustamov has called for shipping companies and commodity traders to respond actively to rising transport costs, rather than treat them as an unavoidable constraint. According to Alkagesta Newsroom, his opinion article in The Motor Ship examines the structural pressures behind freight costs and the industry's responsibility to address them.
The company's account of the article points to several markets used to illustrate those pressures. They include tanker freight rates in the Eastern Mediterranean and on regional trade routes, alongside shipping costs between the Gulf and the Far East. It also cites Trans-Rhine freight costs reaching a 14-year high. The newsroom report provides no individual rate assessments or dates for those market developments, presenting them as the backdrop to Rustamov's argument rather than a detailed freight market update.
Rustamov's central position, as outlined by Alkagesta Newsroom, is that the industry cannot afford to regard higher transport charges as a fixed feature of doing business. His proposed response rests on three elements: greater operational agility, diversification of supply chains and planning for different scenarios. These are presented as practical foundations for dealing with cost pressures, rather than accepting the direction of freight markets without action.
Closer coordination between ship operators and traders is another part of that approach. The newsroom summary says Rustamov argues for the two groups to work more closely on supply networks that can adapt when conditions change. The risks he identifies include abrupt geopolitical and environmental disruptions, with resilience and flexibility positioned as the objectives of that cooperation.
The intervention is an industry opinion piece, not an announcement of a new Alkagesta shipping or trading initiative. The company directs readers to The Motor Ship for the full article, which focuses on how the sector should respond to escalating costs.