Maersk ships to stop calling at Syrian ports

Maersk is halting all shipments to and from Syria due to growing challenges in complying with sanctions.

The Danish liner giant will formally wind down its operations in Syria and no longer call its ports from December 1, 2023.

The war-ravaged Syria has been under sanctions by the European Union, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Switzerland for a long time.

“With Syria being a highly sanctioned country, business activity has already been very restricted, and Maersk has therefore conducted limited operations in Syria in full compliance with international sanctions. This has recently become even more challenging logistically, and we have therefore made the decision to close our operations down completely,” the company said in its customer advisory.

Maersk has offices in Damascus, Latakia and Tartous as well as port operations at Latakia. The last Maersk ship to call Syria will be Maersk Narmada on November 28.