The number of ships that passed through the Bosporus reduced by 8.8% in 2022, compared with 2021, after reducing by 5.1% in the last quarter of 2022, compared with the last quarter of 2021.
The relevant data was provided by the InforMare publication, the CFTS portal reports.
According to the publication, the reduction in the number of ships that passed through the Bosporus is linked to a reduction in the number of large vessels that passed through it. In particular, the number of general cargo vessels that passed through the Bosporus reduced by 9.0% to 15,371, the number of bulk carriers by 18.5% to 7,076, the number of container ships by 11.3% to 2,426, and the number of livestock carriers by 13.3% to 491 in 2022, compared with 2021.
In addition, the number of chemical tankers that passed through the Bosporus increased by 3% to 2,782, the number of gas tankers that passed through it reduced by 8.2% to 424, and the number of other tankers that passed through it increased by 7.1% to 5,447.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, 9,309 vessels passed through the Turkish strait (a 5.1% reduction compared with the corresponding period of 2021), including 3,939 general cargo vessels (4.6% reduction), 2,005 bulk carriers (15.0% reduction), 677 container carriers (1.6% reduction), 733 chemical carriers (15.8% reduction), 115 gas tankers (16.2% increase), and 1,409 other tankers (17.8% increase).
For reference, 38,500 ships passed through the Bosporus in 2021.
As reported earlier, the situation is affected by the blockade of Ukrainian seaports because of Russian military aggression. In addition, Russian representatives are preventing normal vessel traffic from and to Ukrainian ports through the humanitarian maritime corridor established under the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Currently, the rate of departure of ships from the Ukrainian ports taking part in the initiative remains critically low at 2.5 ships per day. For comparison, the rate was 5.7 per day in October 2022.
Meanwhile, the export of Russian crude oil through Black Sea ports tended to increase in January despite the European embargo on it.
