The world’s largest container lines stop shipping to Russia

By Jonathan Saul, Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

LONDON/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The world’s three largest container lines temporarily suspended cargo deliveries to and from Russia on Tuesday in response to Western sanctions against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, in a further blow to trade with the country .

Russia’s attack on its neighbor, which Moscow is calling a “special operation,” is the largest state invasion of Europe since World War II.

Switzerland-based MSC, the world’s largest container shipping company by capacity, said in a note to clients that it had introduced “a temporary suspension of all cargo bookings to/from Russia for all access areas including the Baltics, Black Sea and Russia” from March 1 have Far East Russia”.

“MSC will continue to accept and consider bookings for the delivery of essential supplies such as food, medical equipment and humanitarian supplies,” it said.

Denmark’s Maersk, the second-largest airline after MSC, said separately it would temporarily suspend all container transport to and from Russia, adding that the suspension for all Russian ports did not affect food, medical and humanitarian supplies.

“As the stability and security of our operations are already directly and indirectly affected by sanctions, new Maersk sea and inland bookings to and from Russia are temporarily suspended,” the company said in a statement.

France’s CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container line, said later on Tuesday that it had suspended all bookings to and from Russia until further notice, citing security concerns.

The moves follow similar decisions already made by Singapore-headquartered Ocean Network Express and Germany’s Hapag Lloyd, effectively cutting Russia off from the world’s leading container shipping companies, exacerbating the cargo challenges ahead.

For a year, the world has been grappling with supply chain bottlenecks caused by rising demand for retail goods transported on container ships and lockdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic.

MSC announced that it would contact customers directly regarding Russian-related cargo already in transit.

“MSC has been closely monitoring governments’ advice on new sanctions,” the private group added.

In a coordinated response, the United States, European countries and others have taken the unusual step of imposing financial sanctions on Russia’s central bank and restricting cross-border transactions by the country’s largest lenders.

Maersk owns 31% of Russian port operator Global Ports, which operates six terminals in Russia and two in Finland. Global Ports’ shareholders also include Russian state nuclear company Rosatom and Russian businessman Sergey Shiskarev.

“With Global Ports, we are assessing how we can comply with constantly evolving sanctions and restrictions and preparing possible next steps,” Maersk said.

Maersk operates container shipping routes to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, and Vladivostok and Vostochny on the east coast of Russia.

The Copenhagen-based company employs around 500 people in Russia. Last week, all port calls in Ukraine, where the company employs around 60 people in Odessa, were temporarily suspended.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul in London, Nikolaj Skydsgaard, Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Jason Neely, Louise Heavens, Tomasz Janowski and Paul Simao)