Cargo capacity transiting St. Petersburg plummets, and shipping lines interrupt calls to St. Petersburg and deploy ships to Latin America. The capacity of the deployed fleet on regular intra-European shipping liner services calling at Saint Petersburg (port code: RULED) has plummeted from 96,400 TEUs in early February to just 15,700 TEUs on June 1.
MSC and CMA CGM are the only carriers still announcing departures to/from the Russian port, although Unifeeder and COSCO Shipping have continued to send ships to St. Petersburg in recent weeks on out-of-hours voyages, Alphaliner reports.
Reduced capacity on Russian feeder services has allowed carriers to shift tonnage to other routes. Eight ships from 1,380 to 3,600 TEUs, representing a total capacity of 24,200 TEUs, have been redeployed to transatlantic trade, where there is high demand for additional capacity, reports Alphaliner.
It adds that around half of the 43 ships that have left service to/from St. Petersburg continue to operate on Northern European services, focusing on destinations in Finland, Poland, the Baltic States and the Scandinavian countries. These 22 ships represent a capacity of 37,800 teu.
Another seven vessels between 800 and 2,500 teu (for a total capacity of 10,700 teu) have moved to the North Europe-Med or intra-Med trade.
However, Alphaliner mentions that the redeployment of ships previously serving St. Petersburg has minimal impact on the global containership shortage, as the 80,700 TEUs of fleet capacity have been transferred to routes outside of Russia only represent the 0.3% of the world’s total of fully cellular containers. fleet.
The port of Saint Petersburg still receives a deep water loop operated by a major liner operator: the MSC ‘Ecuador to NWC’ service-oriented to reefer containers with 9 ships from 4112 to 8722 TEU between Ecuador, Central America, Northern Europe and the Baltic. The Benelux – Baltic leg requires the deployment of two 4,100 – 4,900 TEU ships, which have been counted as capacity within Northern Europe in our survey.
MSC still officially advertises St. Petersburg calls on its North Europe – West Africa ‘NWC to/from Morocco – West Africa’ service, but this line has been excluded from our survey as the last physical call in St. Petersburg already dates back on May 21 and there is no ship. currently assigned to this loop is headed for St. Petersburg.
However, the Geneva-based airline has apparently added St Petersburg to the rotation of its intra-Baltic ‘Loop 2’ served by the 1,683 teu MSC VANQUISH which now calls at Klaipeda, St Petersburg and Kotka.
CMA CGM timetables for their Antwerp – Hamburg – Baltic ‘SSLEUR Baltic Shuttle Service A’ still mention St Petersburg calls for the 2,487 teu CMA CGM LOUGA and CMA CGM PREGOLIA in June, but do not (yet) show a continuation of this service in July.
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, Sealand (Maersk) deployed the largest capacity to/from St. Petersburg on services within Northern Europe. The seven 3,596 teu Baltic jumbo feeders (also known as Winter Palaces) made regular calls at the Russian port. The Danish carrier continued to call in St. Petersburg until April 29 to retrieve empty containers but has since stayed away.
Ships bound for Latin America
Two of Maersk’s jumbo feeders have been redeployed on its Northern Europe – Montreal – Halifax ‘Canada Atlantic Express’ (CAE) service, which is operated jointly with CMA CGM. This transfer makes a lot of sense as sisters VISTULA MAERSK and VAYENGA MAERSK’s ice class 1A is suited to winter conditions on the St. Lawrence River. TEUs were originally built for service to/from Montreal, from their Benelux – Baltic ‘North Sea Baltic’ (NBS) service to a new (seasonal) North Europe – Canada ‘AT3’ Loop centered at St John (NB).
The 1,600 teu ice-strengthened BALTIC PETREL, operated by X-Press Feeders and originally built for year-round operations in the Baltic, is the ship that has moved furthest from its former Russian roles. X-Press has redeployed this vessel on its X-Press ‘PCX’ Panama-Central America service connecting Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.
Source: Alphaliner
