Turkey’s defence ministry has said that two more ships left Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea on Friday August 12th, including one that was laden with the first Ukrainian wheat to be exported under the deal agreed between Ukraine and Russia and brokered by the UN and Turkey.
By Friday evening 14 ships had departed from Ukraine over the previous two weeks.
The “Sormovsky” left Chornomorsk port on Friday carrying 3,050 tonnes of wheat to Turkey’s north-western Tekirdag province, according to the Turkish defence ministry. This vessel would in fact appear to be the general cargo ship Sormovskiy 121 (IMO 8133578). It was carrying the first shipment of wheat from Ukraine since February 24th, the day Russia invaded.
The significantly larger, Marshall Island-flagged, Star Laura (IMO 9328936) departed
Pivdennyi (Yuzhne), bound for Iran, with 60,000 tonnes of corn aboard, the Turkish
Defence ministry said.
So far most of the cargoes under the deal have left with grain for animal feed or for fuel.
Ukraine said on Thursday August 11th that a ship was due to come into port this week that is scheduled to take grain to Ethiopia.
The Razoni, whose cargo was rejected by the planned Lebanese importer on the grounds that it was more than five months old, docked in Turkey on Thursday and was headed to Egypt on Friday, having offloaded some 1,500 tonnes of its 26,527-tonne load in Mersin, south-eastern Turkey.
Shipping agent Toros said that the rest of the corn would go to Egypt.
Turkey’s defence ministry also said on Thursday that ships that had arrived in Ukraine were now being loaded.
1982-built, Belize-flagged, 2,466 gt Sormovskiy 121 is owned by Balkan Shipping & Trade Ltd care of manager Trimorya Shipping & Trade Co of Izmir, Turkey. As of August 14th the vessel was underway in the Black Sea, a short way north of Istanbul.
2006-built, Marshall Islands-flagged, 43,189 gt Star Laura is owned by Star Trident XIII LLC care of manager Starbulk SA, Athens, Greece. ISM manager is Star Bulk Shipmanagement Co of Limassol, Cyprus. It is entered with Gard P&I on behalf for Star Trident XIII LLC. For marine hull it is entered with Gard SA as claims leader, on behalf of Starbulk SA. As of August 14th it was in the Marmara Sea, Istanbul anchorage.
