Nearly 60 vessels queue near Sulina en route to Ukrainian ports

Around 50–60 vessels have accumulated near the Sulina Canal in Romanian territorial waters, waiting to proceed to Ukrainian Danube ports. Some vessels have already been in the queue for more than a week, according to Kateryna Kononenko, operations manager at Avalon.

The queue began growing rapidly after Ukraine’s deep-water ports halted operations. Charterers initially waited for their operations to resume but later began redirecting vessels to the Danube. According to Kononenko, the traffic remained manageable when up to 20 vessels were waiting near Sulina, but congestion became severe once the number exceeded that level.

One of the main constraints is a shortage of Romanian pilots, as only they are permitted to guide vessels through the Sulina Canal. Capacity is further limited by the fact that only one commission handles vessel clearance. The procedure takes at least one hour and sometimes up to two hours per vessel. Certain categories, including livestock carriers, are allowed to bypass the general queue.

Prolonged waiting times are already significantly increasing logistics costs. For a vessel with a deadweight of around 6 thsd tons, demurrage currently amounts to $6–7 thsd per day, compared with around $4 thsd previously. “The vessel is waiting. The berth is waiting. Demurrage increases every day. And eventually all these costs are included in logistics costs,” Kononenko said.

According to her, the current situation resembles 2022, when a sharp redirection of cargo flows to the Danube also resulted in a shortage of pilots. However, an effective coordination mechanism between the responsible authorities has still not been established over the past four years. The current vessel congestion near Sulina is putting additional pressure on the Danube route just as its importance for Ukrainian exports has once again increased sharply.

Tags: Danube, Sulina Canal