Hapag-Lloyd AG, a German international shipping and container transportation company, will begin offering container transportation services to Ukrainian seaports this weekend.
This was reported by the publication Splash, citing Alphaliner.
According to the report, Hapag-Lloyd will start slotting on the Romania-Ukraine service operated by Iteris Feeders, a Ukrainian transport and logistics company based in Odesa.
“Ukrainian media is also reporting that Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) will launch a feeder service between Turkey and Ukraine from next month,” the publication wrote, adding that it is still waiting to hear back from Geneva about MSC’s specific plans.
The head of Hapag-Lloyd Ukraine, Valerii Leonov, recently said in comments to the CFTS portal that the prospect of a full resumption of container line operations remains doubtful because of several factors. "First, there is the military risk itself. An example of how container carriers respond to such risks can be seen in the decisions regarding the Red Sea. The limited cargo volume in the Black Sea in general and the unpredictable demand for Ukrainian cargo in particular should also be included here," he said.
"The current cargo volume is being handled without disruption by the port of Constanța and through Polish ports. However, we are closely monitoring market developments and promptly updating the status with the management office," Leonov added.
Subsequently, container ships resumed calling at the ports of Greater Odesa, albeit primarily as part of feeder services.
For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, a container ship entered one of the ports in Greater Odesa on 3 April. The containers were transported on feeder routes to a foreign hub, where they were loaded onto ocean-going container ships of global container lines. According to open-source information, the ship called at the port of Chornomorsk, from where it sailed to the Romanian port of Constanța.
On April 21, the container ship Pros Hope entered the port of Chornomorsk. It was the first container ship to enter the ports of Greater Odesa since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion not as part of a feeder service but directly from the original point of departure.
