Around 50–60 vessels are reportedly waiting near Romania’s Sulina Canal to enter Ukrainian Danube ports, with some ships delayed for more than a week. The queue has grown sharply after charterers redirected vessels to the Danube following the closure of Ukraine’s deep-water ports.
Sulina’s throughput is constrained by a shortage of Romanian pilots, who are required to guide vessels through the canal. Ship registration is also handled by a single commission, with procedures taking up to two hours. Certain cargoes, including livestock, may receive priority outside the general queue.
The congestion is already increasing logistics costs. Demurrage for a vessel of approximately 6,000 deadweight tonnes has risen from around $4,000 per day to $6,000–7,000 per day. The disruption is commercially significant for Ukrainian grain and oilseed exporters using Reni, Izmail and other Danube facilities, as delays can raise delivered costs and reduce effective shipping capacity. With no effective coordination mechanism yet established between Romanian and Ukrainian administrations, the duration of the bottleneck remains uncertain.