Current Exposure
On February 21st, 2023, Skytek recorded that 58 ships with an aggregating market value of $440 million remained trapped in Ukrainian seaports.
On February 25th, 2023, a year will have elapsed since the seaports of Ukraine have been closed for entry and exit. Under the Institute War & Strikes Clauses (IWSC), owners are entitled to claim a Constructive Total Loss for the 58 vessels, assuming that there insured under the IWSC, which remained trapped providing there has been no alternation in the Clause 3 (Detainment Clause) wording.
Summary Overview of the Past 12 Months
The year 2022 started with escalating political tensions in the Black Sea region, and, on February 16th, the Joint War Committee (JWC) added Ukrainian and Russian waters in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to Hull War, Piracy, Terrorism and Related Perils Listed Areas (HRA).
On February 24th, Russia initiated a military operation in Ukraine. The Russian navy started patrolling the areas and seaways were mined, effectively trapping the ships inside the seven seaports ports with access to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, thus freezing the commercial activity from the ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa, Yuzhny, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Berdiansk and Mariupol.
On February 24th, Skytek recorded 102 ships blocked in the inner waters of the Ukrainian ports, valued at $840 million using Skytek’s proprietary price modelling algorithm.
On July 27th, the United Nations (UN), Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, agreed to allow exporting of food products from three ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny, to resume, via “The Grain Initiative Agreement”.
Skytek tracked that from August 01st 2022 to February 21st 2023, 582 unique ships performed 860 voyages shipping just over 23 mil tons of food products from the three ports involved in The Grain Initiative Agreement.