Russia-linked containers choke Rotterdam
Port of Rotterdam CEO Allard Castelein says thousands of containers are causing a ‘nightmare’ situation.
Thousands of shipping containers are causing chaos at the Port of Rotterdam because of links to Russia, media reports have said.
On April 1, the journal Business Insider said at leat 4,500 containers were backed up at the port.
Allard Castelein, CEO of the Dutch port, said containers linked to Russia under new sanction regulations were causing a nightmare because they have to be set aside for inspection.
“You need to isolate them, set them apart, and then do physical inspections before they can be release,” he told news agency Bloomberg.
“That exercise delivers constraints on the value chain in terms of physical space, manpower and time.”
Tighter restrictions were put on luxury goods by thge European Union recently, and in March the US announced a ban on all Russian imports.
So far just Poland has banned Russian oil and gas imports – but it has called on other European countries to do the same, which will only make matters worse.
”Amid concerns over how the port will continue to handle Russian-linked shipping containers, Castelein said that in the likely event that the number of containers continues to increase or fully block the terminals, he is considering creating a separate space to stow the glut of Russian-linked shipping containers,” said the publication.
