Russia's Azovo-Don Inland River Shipping Sees Slump amid Traffic Restrictions, Sanctions

Commercial cargo shipments on Russia's Azovo-Don inland waterways have slumped in 2022 to the lowest level on record amid Western sanctions and traffic suspensions on vessels in the Azov sea, Russian Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot) said. 

The Azovo-Don waterways are used during the summer period as an alternative to railways for the export of cargoes, including oil products from Russian refineries via the ports of the Black and Azov Seas. 

Rosmorrechflot said the main reason for the decrease in the volume of cargo shipments was the restriction on ship movement through the Sea of Azov, as well as the sanctions imposed against Russian domestic companies and certain types of cargo. 

At the end of February, Russia suspended movement of commercial vessels in the Azov sea and resumed shipments in May-June. 

Total waterborne shipments in the Azovo-Don waterways in 2022 fell to 5.93 million tonnes from 8.813 million tonnes in 2021, Rosmorrechflot data showed. 

"This is the lowest level (of shipments in Azovo-Don) for the entire period of cargo flow monitoring since 2001", Rosmorrechflot said. 

Oil products river shipments in Azovo-Don in 2022 totalled 2.957 million tons, or 49.9% of the total waterborne supplies in the Azov-Don basin, including 0.947 million tonnes of fuel oil and 0.838 million tonnes of vacuum gasoil.

 "Major overhauls at refineries and the delayed start of river navigation were the main reasons for reduced oil products inland water shipment", a market source said. 

(Reporting by Reuters. Editing by Jane Merriman)