After five consecutive quarters of decline, a decline that had reached a low of -15% in the second quarter of 2022 due to the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine on the transit of vessels to and from the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, in the first quarter of this year maritime traffic in the Bosphorus Strait is returned to grow thanks to the significant increase of +35.7% of ships transited in March 2023 alone after 12 consecutive months of decrease.

In the first quarter of 2023, in fact, in the Bosphorus Strait 9,250 ships for a total of 149.5 million tons passed gross tonnage, with progressions of +5.9% and +0.6% respectively on the same period last year, including 2,207 tankers (+4.2%), including 67 gas carriers (-43.2%), 697 chemical tankers (-3.6%) and 1,443 other tankers (+12.9%), and 7,043 other tankers (+6.4%), including 2,150 bulk carriers (+8.9%), 3,343 vessels for general cargo (-8.0%), 1,504 container ships (+136.1%) and 605 ro-ro ships (+1.134,7%).

In March of this year alone, the 3,460 ships transited, for an increase of +35.7% on March 2022, they were constituted by 809 tanker (+26.0%) and 2,651 other ships (+38.9%).