Russia’s war in Ukraine is severely affecting shipping in the Black Sea with wide-ranging consequences for international shipping and supply chainsparticularly in the grain market, due to the closure of Ukrainian ports and missile attacks on merchant ships.
According to maritime trackers, dozens of cargo ships are stranded in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv. About 3,500 sailors were trapped on 200 ships in Ukrainian portsmaritime tracking company Windward Ltd. revealed to the Wall Street Journal.
According to maritime historians, there are now more ships stranded around the world than at any time since World War II.
The result is the closure of the second cereal exporting region in the world. Ukraine accounts for 16% of world corn exports and, together with Russia, 30% of wheat exports. World wheat prices have soared more than 55% since the week before the invasion.
“This global grain supply shock is the biggest supply shock since OPEC’s oil cuts in the 1970s,” said Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor at North Carolina’s Campbell University and a former merchant seaman.
“It will mean food shortages in the Middle East and Africa, and inflation around the world.”
To make matters worse for global shippers, thousands of Ukrainian and Russian seafarers are stuck in ports around the world, leaving shipowners in deep trouble finding replacement crews, the WSJ added.
Just a week into the war, when some 100 cargo ships were already stranded in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, Deutsche Welle reported that the German Association of Shipowners (VDR) had asked Russia not to attack the ships. caught up.
Both the Black Sea and the adjoining Sea of Azov are key food and oil export routes, and according to Ukrainian port authorities, five oil tankers and freighters have already been hit by missiles.
Among the affected ships are oil tankers, container ships and bulk carriers from Japan, Turkey, Moldova and Estonia, which carry cargoes such as diesel, clay and grain.
Last week, the crew of a Bangladeshi freighter stranded near the Ukrainian port of Olvia heard an explosion and then the bridge was engulfed in flames. A missile had hit the boatcaused the death of a crew member and serious injuries to others, reported the ship’s authorities.
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