Russia's Shipping Trade Slides After Ukraine Invasion

Russia's shipping trade has plummeted since the invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions push many foreign companies to suspend sailings.The world's biggest foreign container lines including the top three MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and others have temporarily suspended cargo shipments to and from Russia.Overall Russian import volumes for the week of March 2-8 have dropped 40% from the week of Feb 16–22 prior to the invasion, according to data from supply-chain tracking platform FourKites which analyzed all modes of transport including air and sea freight as well as by land using trucks. "Shippers with cargo bound for Russia are asking, 'What can I do?' As major European carriers have stopped calling Russian ports, importers with cargo bound for St. Petersburg and Novorossiysk faced a barrage of issues," said Peter Sand, chief analyst at the air and ocean freight rate benchmarking platform Xeneta.