by Lloyd's List
19 March 2025 (Lloyd's List) - SYRIA’S maritime trade made a noticeable departure from normal patterns last month, with traceable port calls hitting a record high.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows 34 arrivals of cargo-carrying vessels to Syrian ports.
These voyages were tracked using Automatic Identification System data, with the vessels enabling the transmission of this data throughout their entire voyage and while at berth.
Under Bashar al-Assad’s government ships did call at Syria’s ports with AIS enabled, but much of the country’s seaborne trade happened offline. The high volume of “dark” activity — which continues to this day — was a direct response to the many sanctions imposed against Syria’s economy.
In 2024 and 2023, an average of 17 arrivals to Syria were captured each month using AIS data.
The number of traceable arrivals recorded in February is the highest since at least 2022, analysis of vessel-tracking data shows.
Since the collapse of the Assad regime the US, European Union and UK have lifted certain restrictions on Syria, which could be encouraging some people to operate more transparently and others to test the waters.
“In a way it’s a positive thing,” says Daniel Martin, partner at HFW.
“The intention with sanctions relief is to encourage the new regime to be supported, in line with stated UK policy, which is to support the Syrian people in rebuilding their country and promote security and stability (while holding Bashar al-Assad and his associates to account for their actions against the people of Syria): as a result the UK and others are not seeking to discourage the lawful trade.”
The uptick in traceable callings, however, is not evidence of a widespread resumption in trade and any meaningful normalisation will take time.
“Based on what we’ve seen before, with Iran and to some extent Venezuela, when restrictions are lessened there tends not to be a huge rush of participants back in, because people are still adjusting to know what the restrictions are and also because they may be limited by contract terms that were agreed prior to the lessening of sanctions,” adds Martin.
The continuing occurrence of dark port calls post-Assad regime and after partial sanctions lifting indicates people still view the trade as risky.
There were at least seven dark port calls to Syrian ports in February and at least another seven have been recorded so far in March.
One vessel, the 7,876 dwt LPG carrier Gas Catalina (IMO: 9183568), which called to Baniyas with AIS enabled during two voyages in February, then opted to disable AIS on its next three voyages.
Washington Institute for Near East Policy senior fellow Noam Raydan said: “My opinion is that even opportunistic traders and shipowners still view their activities as risky particularly because of US sanctions that remain in place, despite the temporary waiver which the Biden administration issued, and because Syria in general remains a high-risk area for shipping.”
Other dark port calls captured this month include the sanctioned Barbados-flagged product tankers Prosperity (IMO: 9322956) and Proxima (IMO: 9329655), which were delivering Russian diesel to Syria’s Baniyas port.
Despite the strained relationship between Moscow and Damascus, Syria’s interim government has turned to Russia to secure much needed oil shipments to address its critical energy needs.
TankerTrackers reported that Russia has, for the first time, dispatched 1m barrels of crude oil to Syria on board the sanctioned suezmax Sabina (IMO: 9524451).
Sabina departed Murmansk on March 17 and was using its AIS data to signal Syria’s Baniyas as its destination, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data. The destination was changed to Egypt’s Port Said the next day.
It is common for vessels to indicate a false destination via AIS data when sailing to and calling at Syrian ports.
Overall, in terms of sheer volume of activity, Syria’s maritime trade under the interim government does not significantly differ from the previous regime, according to Raydan.
“I don’t see February as a unique month in port calls compared to 2024 when looking at both traceable and dark port calls. But I would say that Syria, under the new government, does not appear to be finding it difficult to source its imported commodities, including oil shipments.”
