Turkey's Largest Regional Box Operators Suspend All Calls at Russian Ports

Two of Turkey's leading container operators have suspended their services to every Russian port, removing one of the last regular liner links into the country's Black Sea and Baltic gateways.

Akkon Lines, reported to be Turkey's largest regional operator, issued a customer memorandum at the end of last week announcing that it is suspending all service to all Russian ports, including St Petersburg. The company said it had concluded that further escalation "poses increased risks to the crew, vessel, and cargo." Cargo already in the system is to be returned either to its port of origin or to its shipping destination, although one ship bound for St Petersburg and already in the Baltic may discharge its boxes in Lithuania instead of carrying them back to Turkey. The move follows a similar decision by the Turkish carrier Arkas.

The immediate trigger was the loss of Akkon's own tonnage. The container ship RMS Team was alongside at Novorossiysk on 21 August when she was struck by a drone. The ship was heavily damaged and the crew evacuated into the port. Video that has since emerged shows the extent of the damage, and the vessel has been declared a constructive total loss. Built in 2004, the 13,000 dwt ship had a capacity of 1,096 teu and had been under Turkish ownership and the Barbados flag since May 2023.

Turkish operators have carried a disproportionate share of the casualties from the campaign against shipping at both ends of the Black Sea. Deniz Tasmacilig, chairman of the board of directors of the Turkish company Transbosphor, put Turkish losses at $20bn from the attacks of the past three months and the trade forgone alongside them.

The commercial arithmetic had already been deteriorating. Akkon began redirecting cargo away from Novorossiysk to St Petersburg earlier in August, adding charges of up to $2,500 per container, while other operators applied risk surcharges of around $1,000 per box. The line had also been working with Russia's Fesco, which lost its container ship Yanina to an attack in the Black Sea on 1 August, and shippers had been using Akkon as the alternative.

The withdrawal completes a broader retreat. MSC recently suspended its own service to Novorossiysk after one of its vessels was struck, and Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have suspended calls at Ukraine's Black Sea ports as attacks on those terminals intensified. Turkish diplomats continue to press for a moratorium on attacks against commercial shipping, and have put several proposals to both Russia and Ukraine. Turkey brokered the first grain corridor in 2022 and is attempting to repeat that role. Until something of the kind is agreed, shippers say the loss of the Turkish route makes delivering cargo into either country substantially harder.