Slowdown of inspections in Istanbul: 120 ships are already in the queue
10.10.2022 - 13:30
The number of vessels awaiting departure to or from Ukrainian ports reached a record number of 120 vessels.
Carriers are calling for an increase in the number of inspectors in Istanbul: since mid-September, the waiting time for vessel inspection has increased to 10-15 days. For comparison, in the first six days of the Istanbul Agreements, ships waited only 5-6 days for inspections, according to research company SovEcon.
A large number of vessels in the queue is associated with a high demand for transportation along the “grain corridor”. Ukraine wants to export as much grain as possible to make room in the elevators for the new crop.
According to UN representative Amir Abdullah, who is responsible for coordinating the “grain initiative”, five teams of inspectors are trying to meet the demand. He also noted that increasing the number of inspectors requires the consent of all parties to the agreement.
Interlocutors of the Financial Times said that russia was reluctant to send additional inspectors to Istanbul, which outraged Ukrainian officials.
“At the moment, there is no decision by all members to increase the number of inspections to avoid further accumulation of vessels awaiting inspection,” commented the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Vaskov.
UN officials said that the line of ships indicates the success of the Grain Agreements, because the number of ships is greater than anyone at the UN predicted. At the same time, insufficient training of some crews and ship owners also led to the fact that some ships could not pass the inspection, as a result of which the loading of inspectors increased.
