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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 23:47

DFDS struggles to cope with influx of Russian trucks in Klaipeda

BC, Vilnius, 10.02.2016.Print version
DFDS Seaways, a Lithuanian ferry operator that is part of the Danish shipping group DFDS, is struggling to cope with an influx of Russian trucks bypassing Poland on their way to Germany due to Russia and Poland failing to reach a deal on permits, reports LETA/BNS.

A 2.5-kilometer-long queue of trucks formed at the International Ferry Terminal in Klaipeda on Monday.

 

Arturas Drungilas, marketing and administration director at the Klaipeda seaport authority, told BNS that Russian truckers had decided to cross the Baltic Sea by ferry to Kiel, in Germany.

 

"The ferry operator does not have the capacity to accommodate all those vehicles. The problem is to cross Poland, so everybody wants to bypass it. All vehicles have Russian number plates," he said.

 

DFDS Seaways spokesman Vaidas Klumbys told BNS on Tuesday that around 300 trucks from Russia were queuing at the terminal.

 

According to Klumbys, the company has stopped accepting reservations for trucks and expects that all cargo now waiting at the terminal will leave Klaipeda by Feb. 29.

 

"We invite haulers to use our ferry line from Klaipeda to the Swedish port of Karlshamn and then travel via southern Sweden and Denmark to Germany. We carried 30 trucks last week on the route. The number is likely to increase this week," he said.

 

According to the spokesman, the truck congestion at the ferry terminal began after haulage agreements between Russia and Poland expired on Feb. 1 and a new deal was not reached. Most of the trucks arrived last weekend.

 

Bilateral haulage permits expired on Feb. 1, but talks between Poland and Russia on new permits are still ongoing.






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