Carriers are wasting no time in redeploying tonnage formerly used on services to Russia.
The vessels are being transferred to other intra-Europe services or to trades further afield, including the transatlantic and Mediterranean.
According to Alphaliner, carriers have withdrawn close to 10,000 teu of weekly regional capacity as services to Russia or the Baltic are suspended or significantly downgraded.
Leading carriers including AP Moller-Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd, as well as independent operators such as Unifeeder and X-Press Feeders, have redeployed ships.
Carriers are expected to continue to move ships to more stable services not affected by Russia sanctions within their network in the coming days, according to Alphaliner.
Transatlantic lure
Several vessels that are redundant on the Baltic trade have been redeployed on the transatlantic, where demand is strong.
MSC will deploy the 3,005-teu MSC Shannon (built 1991) as an extra loader on the North Europe-Halifax service.
It had previously operated in the Baltic Loop 7 service to St Petersburg where capacity has been halved.
Hapag-Lloyd has also redeployed the 2,268-teu Lisbon Express (built 1995) to the transatlantic trade as an extra loader.
It was previously one of three vessels in the carrier’s North Sea-Baltic service.
Sanctions against Russia have prompted Maersk to redeploy a pair of ice-class 1A vessels specifically to the Mediterranean trades.
The 3,596-teu sisterships Venta Maersk and Vistula Maersk (both built 2018) had previously operated on a shuttle service between Rotterdam and St Petersburg.
They have been nominated for North Europe-East Med sailings of Maersk’s intra-Europe operations division Sealand.
CMA CGM has redeployed the 1,118-teu CMA CGM Tanger (built 2003) and 957-teu Contship Fun (built 2006) to other intra-Mediterranean services, according to Alphaliner.
The two ships previously operated in the suspended East Med-Black Sea Express service that used to call at Novorossiysk.
Feeder operator Unifeeder has redeployed the 1,085-teu Amina (built 2011) and 1,036-teu Elbwind (built 2012) to other Baltic services calling at Denmark and Finland.
The ships previously operated in the suspended Baltic loops catering for cargo to and from St Petersburg.
Another vessel, the 801-teu Astrosprinter (built 2007), which previously operated for Unifeeder between Gdansk in Poland and Russia, is being used as an extra loader trading between Sweden, Germany and Denmark.
Similar moves have been taken by X-Press Feeders and Icelandic carrier Samskip, Alphaliner noted.
X-Press has redeployed the 1,638-teu Baltic Petrel and Baltic Shearwater (both built 2005) to services connecting Finland, Rotterdam, North Spain and Portugal.
Samskip has found a new trade between Rotterdam and the UK for the 803-teu Dream (built 2006) and the 646-teu Perseus (built 1996) following the suspension of a service connecting north European ports with St Petersburg.
Some carriers have already announced they will not halt all of their services to and from Russian ports.
The lines continue to carry foods, medicines, medical equipment and humanitarian goods.
