A Caterpillar 12M Grader on display in Lexington, Kentucky, the US. Picture: BLOOMBERG/LUKE SHARRETT
An internal document outlining Caterpillar’s logistics and supply-chain activities, seen by Bloomberg, says the company’s rail shipments crossing Russia between Europe and China were operating as normal. Caterpillar began relying more on rail freight through Russia in 2021, when ocean freight became exceedingly tight and costly.
The revelation that Caterpillar continues to use Russia as a transit route is significant, considering that Caterpillar doesn’t normally give out a lot of detail about physical shipping of its goods in Europe, Asia or elsewhere.