According to GCaptain, Maersk and its intra-European arm Sealand Europe & Med have announced that all vessel operations in Russia stops with immediate effect.
The Danish shipping line will also close its offices in the Russian Far East, Novorossiysk, Kaliningrad and Belarus during the summer of 2022, while the St Petersburg and Moscow offices will remain open until the end of the year to oversee the closure of the domestic operations. In March, Sealand (Maersk), as well as other carriers, began suspending services or significantly reducing capacity to and from Russia.
The 3,596 teu Baltic ‘V-class’ jumbo feeder VOLGA MAERSK made its last call in Saint Petersburg on 29 April. Earlier that week, four of its sister ships, VENTA MAERSK, VAYENGA MAERSK, VUOKSI MAERSK and VAGA MAERSK called into the Russian port to evacuate empty containers to Northern European terminals.
Five of the seven ice-class 1A jumbo feeders built for the Baltic will continue to operate thereafter calling off St Petersburg. The new rotation of this great Baltic feeder loop that rotates in five weeks is: Bremerhaven, Felixstowe, Kotka, Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Gdansk, Klaipeda, Riga, Gdansk, Bremerhaven.
Already in March, the Danish shipping line has closed the other workhorse service in the Baltic, the Rotterdam – St Petersburg Loop. This dedicated ferry to Saint Petersburg used to be served by two 3,596 teu ice class 1A vessels.
Therefore, Maersk also changed the rotation of the last Black Sea service calling Russia by replacing Novorossiysk with Constanta. The ‘Levant-Black Sea’ loop, geared towards reefers, continues to offer fortnightly departures with the 2,274 teu NELE MAERSK calling at Port Said, Constanta, Istanbul-Ambarli, Port Said. The final call of NELE MAERSK in Novorossiysk took place on April 21.
