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MS DAILY BRIEF – 28 november 2022

Cupons

Constanta and its hope on the map of seaports: European top. 1

Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, photo source: Ministry of Defence in Moscow.. 2

Russia enters Ukrainian winter with equipment from Iran. After crushing Napoleon’s armies in 1812 and repelling invasion in 1941, General Winter abandons Russia. 3

US vs China confrontation – inevitable. Naumescu: A failure on the Taiwan issue would be the end of the world based on American power supremacy. 5

The Italian Navy’s fifth PPA patrol ship has been launched by Fincantieri 6

NATO 2022 Bucharest / INTERVIEW Bogdan Aurescu: The war unleashed against Ukraine – the most cruel expression of concerns, AGERPRES – 26 November 2022. 8

War in Ukraine. Azov-Black Sea maritime operational area. 18

The port of Constanta has the second highest increase in the amount of cargo transferred in 2021, up 26% compared to the pandemic year 2020, after the Belgian port of Zeebrugge (+27%). Romania also had the second highest increase compared to 2011. And the year 2022 came with new progress, following the blockade of Ukrainian ports.

In contrast, large ports in the EU top 10 by quantities transferred, such as Piraeus or Algeciras (Spain), suffered further declines in 2021 compared to 2020 due to supply chain disruptions triggered by the pandemic. Romania ranks 13th in terms of maritime transport volume and the Port of Constanta is among the 20 largest EU ports, according to Eurostat data. On the other hand, Romania ranks last in terms of maritime transport volume per capita, with 2.8 million tonnes in 2021, second last among the EU’s sea-going countries, just ahead of Poland (2.6 million tonnes), and far behind the champion, the Netherlands, with 33.6 million tonnes. Despite the slight recovery in EU maritime freight shipments compared to 2020 (+4.1% to 3.5 billion tonnes), the level is below pre-pandemic levels.

Romania had the second highest growth in 10 years

Romania, which still has smaller seaports at Mangalia, Midia and Galati, saw the highest growth in shipping volume of 36.5% and the second highest growth since 2011, after Poland, of no less than 67.4%. Romania, however, had the highest volume increase compared to 2020 (+12.5%), followed by Slovenia (+9.5%), Poland (+9.2%) and Belgium (+7.5%). The port of Constanta is among the ports with the most balanced structure of outgoing and incoming cargo. In the structure of cargo shipments of the Port of Constanta, bulk cargoes dominate with 60.1% of the total (due to export grain cargoes), followed by oil cargoes. In fact, Romania is among the countries with a high proportion of non-EU shipments.