The escalating Ukraine-Russia crisis has hindered and disrupted commercial shipment of bulk goods involving energy and grain transportation with the Ukraine army shutting down ports and shipping routes, prompting five-fold pricing hikes of oil shipments by small and medium-sized tankers.
The Ukrainian military on Thursday has suspended commercial shipping at ports, including the port of Odessa, Ukraine's largest port. Meanwhile, various shipping leaders including Maersk and CMA have announced suspension of shipments and calling at ports in Ukraine.
Many shipping companies said that they are responding to the abrupt and severe situation in a swift manner and made timely readjustments of the shipping routes.
"Some ships are halfway through, and if they originally planned to go there, they might have negotiated with the customers to change the port to some safe port nearby, such as Romania. For those ships in the port, some major ports in Ukraine have announced that the ports are closed, the ships may have to temporarily transfer to other ports for safety reasons," said Xue Liangyi, deputy general manager of the shipping department, Shanghai Merchants Minghua shipping Co., LTD.
Meanwhile, the freight costs of small and medium-sized tankers represented by Suezmax and Aframax tankers in the Black Sea region rose more than five times a day.
"It seems like 'robbery of oil', prompting the rents of Suezmax and Aframax tankers rising sharply. The rent of the Aframax tankers has actually reached 100,000 (U.S. dollars), an extremely stunning figure. In addition, the TCE (Time Charter Equivalent) daily rent of Aframax tankers reached about 20,000 (U.S. dollars)," said Yan Hai, chief analyst on transportation logistics industry, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities.
Analysts held that irregularities of oil freight stems from deep worries and concerns about sanctions on Russia's oil and natural gas exports, and the Russian shipping companies are bearing the brunt of cutting shipping capacity and raising oil freight rates.
Source: China Media Group(CMG)-CCTV
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Xinde Marine News.
Please Contact Us at：
media@xindemarine.com
.gif)
