Star Metro - Ships avoid Ukrainian grain ports after Russian attacks

The escalation in a region critical to global grain exports is driving up international wheat prices, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence, a maritime data company.

Ukraine is a major exporter of corn, wheat, colza, sunflower seeds and vegetable oil, and 90 percent of its commodity exports pass through Black Sea ports in and around Odesa. Russia and Ukraine together account for about 30 percent of global wheat supplies.

The Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd shipping companies told AFP they had halted operations at Chornomorsk, one of Ukraine's three key deepwater terminals.

"Recent missile and drone attacks in the Odesa region have significantly increased the operational and security risks," Hapag-Lloyd said in a comment to AFP.

But the Ukraine market was still being served through road and rail routes cross Poland and Romania, it added.

According to the MarineTraffic monitoring website, no commercial ship entered a Ukrainian Black Sea port on Thursday morning.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriï Sybiga said Wednesday that no ship had taken Ukraine's Black Sea maritime corridor that day, "right at peak harvest".

- Deadly Russian strike -

The attacks are a threat to global food security, he warned, adding that Ukraine had called for a UN Security Council meeting on July 27.

For Ukraine, agricultural exports -- which mainly supply Asia, Africa and the Middle East -- are one of the few sources of hard currency during the war that has raged since February 2022.

Russia has regularly targeted Odesa, but has recently intensified strikes on its ports, grain and sunflower oil terminals, and on commercial vessels in Ukrainian harbours.

"In the last few days, the situation has become the worst since May 2022," said Odesa shipping broker Anton Shapran of the Martime Logistics firm.

But it was still possible to divert some smaller ships via the Danube river ports, he added.

On Sunday, a Russian strike killed 10 people, including four Indian crew, on a cargo ship, the Golden Leo, off the Odesa coast. India summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the deaths.

Ukraine, for its part, has stepped up attacks on shipping in the Sea of Azov as well as on Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" of sanctions-busting oil tankers.

No export of produce has been registered from Odesa since July 12, when 20,000 tonnes of corn set off for Turkey, according to to the Kpler trade and commodity monitoring website.

At Chornomorsk, there has been nothing since 65,000 tonnes of corn were sent to Bulgaria on July 19, it added.

And at the port of Pivdennyi, 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Odesa, there have been no exports this week.

A.Landry--SMC