Up to 70 ships queue on Danube as Russian attacks choke Ukraine’s grain exports
Up to 70 vessels are waiting near Romania’s Sulina Canal for access to Ukrainian Danube ports as intensified Russian attacks disrupt Ukraine’s Black Sea shipping and grain exports, Reuters reported, citing traders and analysts.
Ukraine has redirected some grain shipments to its Danube ports after Russian attacks effectively blocked its Black Sea ports, which had handled about 90% of the country’s grain exports.
The Danube ports have significantly less capacity, while grain shipments are competing with higher-priority cargo such as fuel. Frequent air raid alerts, which force port operations to stop, have added to the disruption.
Consultancy ASAP Agri said more than 50 vessels were waiting to pass through the Sulina Canal as of Aug. 25, with only five to seven vessels per day moving toward Ukrainian Danube ports. Each day of delay can cost up to $8,000, adding to already high freight rates.
Avalon shipping estimated that about 70 vessels were waiting near Sulina and said the canal’s effective capacity for ships heading to Ukrainian ports was currently only two to three vessels per day.
The disruption is already reflected in Ukraine’s export figures. The country exported 539,000 metric tons of grain between Aug. 1 and 21, compared with 1.73 million tons during the same period last year, according to Agriculture Ministry data cited by Reuters.
The bottleneck comes as Ukraine warns that prolonged export disruptions could leave it short of grain storage capacity as early as November.
Agriculture and Food Minister Taras Vysotskyi told hromadske that Ukraine is currently exporting agricultural products at only about 30% of the level needed. Even raising exports to about 50% of the country’s export potential would be physically difficult using alternative routes, he said.
Vysotskyi warned that if the disruption continues, as much as 30 million metric tons of Ukrainian agricultural products could fail to reach international markets.
He said the impact on global food prices has so far been limited by the ongoing harvest across the Northern Hemisphere. But if the disruption persists for several more months, global prices could rise by as much as 30%, with vulnerable food-importing countries facing the greatest impact.
Russian attacks on civilian shipping and port infrastructure intensified in July. Several foreign-flagged vessels have been hit, killing and injuring crew members.