The first crude cargoes have resumed unloading at the French port of Fos-sur-Mer after strikes by dockers ended.
Vessels had been building up off the port since the end of June, tying up capacity, but now the unwinding disruption will boost the tonnage supply in the region.
George Economou company Cardiff Marine’s 115,300-dwt aframax Dali (built 2018) discharged Kazakhstan crude loaded from the CPC pipeline at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Kpler data showed.
AIS data reveals the ship arrived on Sunday and left on Monday. It was heading east to Piraeus in Greece on Tuesday.
This was the first crude discharge at the port since 27 June, Kpler said.
The analytics company added that ships had been waiting nearly seven days to unload over the first eight days of July.
Queues reached 9.3 days on average in mid-June.
UK protection and indemnity club NorthStandard said last month that French port workers had intensified their industrial action in protest at proposed pension reforms and working conditions.
The club’s local correspondents reported that following unsuccessful negotiations, the national port and dockers workers’ union CGT had called for a return to “dead port days” across all French ports, starting on 7 June.
Cargo operations ended
That day, workers in major ports such as Le Havre and Marseille-Fos blocked road access, and cargo operations came to a halt as stevedores stopped work.
Similar disruptions occurred throughout France, including at terminals in Bordeaux, Rouen and Nantes/Saint-Nazaire.
The union announced additional dead port days on 13, 21 and 25 June.
Previously, workers had blocked terminal access in November 2023 and February 2024, alongside regular four-hour stoppages on three different days each week.
