After the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian Black Sea ports were cut off from the world trade. This created a ripple effect on regional logistics. Due to Russian Navy forces' blockage of Ukrainian seaports, thousands of import containers destined for Ukraine had to be discharged in the port of Constanta the nearest seaport to Ukraine while others were unloaded at the ports of Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Israel.
The rapid increase of container traffic in transit destined to Ukraine overloaded the container yards of Constanta slowing down the terminal operation. The total container transit volume of Constanta port in Q1 2022 is estimated to have tripled compared to Q1 2021. Our estimations show that around 7,000 TEU in transit were transported to Ukraine during March 2022 only. As terminal officials reported, Constanta container yard utilization was up to 90% at the end of March 2022 while gradually decreasing to 80% in the following weeks of May.
The increased dwell time for both domestic and transit containers caused terminal congestion in Constanta. Dwell time for Ukrainian import containers increased significantly since the mid of March 2022 (up to two weeks) as importers are struggling to arrange transportation amid a war conflict which contributes to the congestion at the Constanta container terminals.
Source: container-news.com
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