According to Maersk Chief Executive Soren Skou, the shipping company still has vessels arriving at Russian ports to deliver containers scheduled prior to the invasion of Ukraine started and to pick up roughly 50,000 containers stuck in Russia.
As a result of what the Kremlin refers to as a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the business has temporarily ceased new container reservations to and from Russia. “We have about 50,000 of our containers in Russia today. Most of them are empty, they are our property,” Skou said.
According to a representative for Maersk, the company was also attempting to move the containers out of Russia via train. Due to delays at Russian ports, Maersk is uncertain to be able to transport all of the containers scheduled into Russia before the war of Ukraine began.
Last year, Russia accounted for around 2.5 percent of the company’s overall sales. It runs container lines to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad in the Baltic Sea, Novorossiisk in the Black Sea, and Vladivostok and Vostochny on Russia’s east coast.
Maersk, which has had a presence in Russia since 1992, announced last week that it would sell all of its assets in the country, including its 30.75 percent stake in Russian port operator Global Ports Investments, whose shareholders include Russian state nuclear company Rosatom and Russian businessman Sergey Shiskarev.
“Russia has for many years been a large and important market for Maersk, but naturally we cannot continue operating critical infrastructure in Russia as if nothing has happened. We may not be able to return to doing business in Russia for many years to come. This is a price we are both willing to and able to pay,” the CEO further added.
