The world’s three largest container shipping lines, Denmark’s Maersk, France’s CMA CGM and Swiss-based MSC, have suspended their bookings to and from Russia after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, sparking a flurry of Western sanctions.

The exit of major container shipping companies — which transport most manufactured goods around the world and are essential to international trade — is expected to cause a major decline in shipments if no alternatives to these firms are found soon, according to the head of Delo Group, Russia’s largest container operator.

“We expect the drop in shipments (to and from Russian ports) in the northwestern region to be around 90% to 95% starting in May if no alternatives appear on the market,” said Delo Group CEO Dmitry Pankov. He was referring to container terminals at Russian ports including those in St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga.

Pankov said ports in the Russian Far East, the Black Sea and Sea of Azov would suffer less from the exit of mayor container shipping companies because their share of cargo traffic was smaller than that of northwestern Russia and because new players in those regions were beginning to emerge.

He did not name those companies, but said some came from Turkey.

Alexander Isurin, chief executive of TransContainer, predicted the exit of container shipping companies would result in a shortage of containers in circulation on the Russian market.

“The market will need to find a replacement for some 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU),” said Isurin. TransContainer expects about 30% of containers on the Russian market to be withdrawn from circulation.

“The Russian transport market will most likely not be able to make up for everything and replace the largest container lines in the world that suddenly decided to no longer work here.”

Isurin suggested Russia might have no choice but to work with smaller regional container shipping companies new to the Russian market.

“There are Chinese, Japanese and Korean companies that can choose their position,” he said. “I think that many of them have taken a wait-and-see position that will depend on how the situation develops.” (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge).

Source: www.reuters.com

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Russia’s military took control of waterways when it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, in what Moscow calls a “special operation”.

Ukrainian maritime officials have told Reuters fighting has left around 100 foreign-flagged vessels and hundreds of mariners stranded in Ukrainian ports.

Last week a seafarer was killed at the Ukrainian port of Olvia after a missile struck his Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship. Projectiles have hit four other vessels in recent days with one sunk.

The UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) convened a virtual meeting on Thursday and Friday to discuss the escalating situation.

A statement afterwards said the IMO’s Secretary-General Kitack Lim “indicated his commitment to take immediate action to realise the blue safe maritime corridor with the cooperation and collaboration of the relevant parties including littoral states”.

It said a maritime corridor would “allow the safe evacuation of seafarers and ships from the high-risk and affected areas in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to a safe place”.

Ukraine has accused the Russian military of targeting Olvia port facilities in a missile strike, while Russia’s embassy in Dhaka said last week the circumstances of the incident involving the Bangladesh ship were “being established”. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians.

The IMO meeting was held with its Council, which consists of 40 member countries who are elected for two years. Non-Council member states such as Ukraine were able to make statements.

The IMO statement said separately that the Council “deplored the attacks of the Russian Federation aimed at commercial vessels, their seizures, including search-and-sescue vessels”.

The Council separately demanded that Russia “cease its unlawful activities to ensure the safety and welfare of seafarers and the security of international shipping and the marine environment in all affected areas”.

Russia’s IMO representatives could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.

Source: www.marinelinks.com

Image: www.pixibay.com

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