Ten more bulk carriers were being loaded with grain in Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Friday August 19th and being prepared for export Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov has said.
On Saturday morning /oil products tanker Zumrut Ana (IMO 9633549) and MV Ocean S (IMO 9086320) were reported to have left Ukrainian waters, loaded with 25,000 tonnes of wheat and 6,300 tonnes of sunflower oil.
“Ten vessels are currently being loaded and are preparing to leave the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi (Yuzhne). We also have more than 40 applications for shipping to Ukrainian ports,” Kubrakov said.
He added that 25 ships had already been dispatched from the three Ukrainian ports with 630,000 tonnes of agricultural products on board.
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said on Friday the country’s grain exports were down by 51.6% year-on-year at 2.99m tonnes so far in the /23 season. However, the conditional success of the Black Sea corridor has helped push down global grain prices.
Although the reported 630,000 tons of foodstuffs were well below the level of exports pre-invasion, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that “we have seen signs that global food markets are beginning to stabilize”.
Ukraine’s grain exports in the 2022 to 2023 season were now being estimated at 30.4m tons, which, while still only half the potentially expected level in a “normal” year, was up from the July prediction of 22.6m tons.
It was noted that many of the cargoes to date had been relatively small. It was thought that both traders and shipowners were looking to make sure that the corridor was working without incident before they committed larger vessels to the trade route.
Meanwhile, cargo ship SV Konstantin (IMO 9203710), alleged by Ukraine to be carrying
grain stolen by Russia from occupied parts of Ukraine, appeared to have reached the Syrian port of Tartus, only a short while after the Razoni arrived, carrying “legal” grain from Ukraine.
The SV Konstantin had sailed from the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula on around July 6th after having loaded Ukrainian grain at Sevastopol (transported their by lorries from occupied areas). The vessel transited the Bosphorus and then stopped off at Izmir, southern Turkey. It then headed into the Mediterranean along the coast of Cyprus before switching off its AIS on August 14th, a common precursor to an arrival in a Syrian port.
Satellite images showed the SV Konstantin off the coast of Tartus on August 16th
and 17th.
2014-built, Liberia-flagged, 4,684 gt Zumrut Ana is owned by Armada Voyager Seven Co Ltd care of manager Spring Marine Denizcilik of Istanbul, Turkey. It is entered with American Club on behalf of Armada Voyager Seven Co Ltd. As of August 20th it was en route from Chornomorsk to Istanbul, ETA August 20th.
1996-built, Liberia-flagged, 16,041 gt Ocean S is owned by Cloudfree Maritime Ltd care of manager Armador Gemi Isletmeciligi of Istanbul, Turkey. As of August 20th it was en route from Chornomorsk to Ambarli, Turkey, ETA August 22nd.
2002-built, Russia-flagged, 4,860 gt SV Konstantin is owned and managed by Alfa-Leasing LLC of Moscow, Russia. ISM manager is Kama Ltd of Moscow, Russia. No AIS since August 14th, when the vessel was listed as heading from Izmir, south-western Turkey, to Tripoli, Lebanon, and was said to have restricted manoeuvrability north-east of Cyprus.
