News / Kremlin plotting ban on major box carriers entering Russian ports

Ukrainian intelligence has released a report claiming that the Kremlin is set to pass a new law restricting foreign-owned and operated boxships from accessing Russian ports.

The move has prompted a wave of questions – not least, why OOCL has been included on the list of carriers specifically barred.

According to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SZRU), Russia’s parliament is drafting a decree to effectively block leading carriers from returning to the market, with CMA CGM, Maersk, OOCL, and X-Press Feeders expressly banned from providing capacity.

The SZRU release says: “The draft decree stipulates that foreign container lines will be allowed to call at Russia only if the shipowner, carrier and operator are registered under Russian law – with the ultimate Russian beneficiary holding more than a 50% stake.

“Besides, carriers are required to give priority to transporting sanctioned cargo and must have no ties to the world’s 10 largest shipping groups. Among those explicitly mentioned are CMA CGM, Maersk, OOCL, and the UK’s X-Press Container Line.”

Hong-Kong headquartered OOCL’s inclusion surprised sources, given that, firstly it has not been one of the “10 largest shipping groups” since it became a subsidiary of China’s Cosco in July 2018; and secondly, it seems a slap in the face to a ally that Russian president Vladimir Putin has become dependent on since launching his war on Ukraine in 2022.

More than 50% of Russian imports come from China, doubling since the invasion of Ukraine, prompting a wave of new niche shipping lines and services to cater for massive spike in demand for Chinese goods and tonnage after Russia was cut off from other global markets.

Asked about OOCL’s presence on the prohibited list, one source told The Loadstar they could only assume it was tied to its presence in the US, where it is holds a stevedoring contract on the Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT).

Authorities in the US forced the Hong Kong-based carrier to sell LBCT in 2019 in exchange for approving its sale to Cosco, which included OOCL’s right to enter into what was then a 20-year stevedoring contract.

Vespucci Maritime chief executive Lars Jensen told The Loadstar the decision “sounded odd”, and he questioned how Russia would meet its demand for containerised capacity if it was requiring operators to be 50%-plus domestically owned and have no ties to the prohibited carriers.

Mr Jensen added that if the decree did become law, “it would leave Russia with insufficient container vessel capacity”.

He added: “Right now they are, for example, serviced by some Chinese niche carriers and MSC.” The Swiss operator is notably absent from the reported names on the banned list.

According to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database, the Geneva-headquartered carrier has maintained two feeder services into St Petersburg since 2022, and included a call at Russia’s largest container port on its reefer-heavy Ecuador-North Europe-US service last year.

One commentator suggested it was possible that either the report from the SZRU was inaccurate or fabricated, or that the decree “could represent confused thinking” by a Russian government that may have “limited understanding of how containerised trades operate”.