Ukraine returns to container shipping map
After more than two years after Russia started its invasion of this country, container ships are calling again at Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea. Hapag-Lloyd has included Odesa in its network through a connection performed by Iteris Feeder ships.
Container connections to Ukrainian seaports were suspended after the outbreak of a full-scale military conflict in February 2022. Russia launched military attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure. This caused a serious problem for the Ukrainian economy, and the blockade of grain export threatened the outbreak of a global humanitarian crisis.
In July 2022, Russia agreed to transport grain from Ukrainian ports as part of a tripartite agreement, which it broke a year later by threatening attacks on merchant ships. However, it was unable to carry out these attacks due to the military successes of the Ukrainians in the Black Sea forcing the Russian Navy to withdraw from the war zone. As a result, a safe transport corridor for shipping was created along the western shore of the Black Sea to Odesa. At the beginning of the current year, an attempt was made to conclude a new grain agreement with Russia but Kyiv withdrew from the negotiations as such an agreement had become unnecessary.
Safe calls of bulkers to Ukrainian ports encouraged container shipping owners to return to the region. This weekend, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd will become the first container carrier to return to Odesa after a break of over two years through the Ukrainian company Iteris Feeder, which operates the Odesa-Romania connection. According to Splash, MSC is also considering the launch of a feeder service to the Ukrainian port but no decision has been made yet.
A month ago, Iteris Feeder introduced two small ships with a capacity of 373 and 381 TEU on the route between Odesa and Constanta. The average round travel time is four to five days.