Port of Duisburg has announced the cessation of all business activity in Belarus with immediate effect due to the support of the Ukraine war by Belarus.
“We unreservedly close this chapter,” commented duisport’s CEO, Markus Bangen, on a decision that is based on close coordination between the executive board, the supervisory board and shareholders.
Germany’s inland port, duisport will divest both its minority stake (0.59%) in the international development company of the industrial and logistics park Great Stone as well as its stake in Eurasian Rail Gateway CJCS (38.9%) that planned the building and operation of a bimodal terminal.
Furthermore, duisport’s representative office in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, has already been closed.
“Our thoughts are with the people in Ukraine and we hope for a quick end of the war”, said Bangen, who added, “We have already been critically questioning our activities there since the elections in 2020 and upon instigation by the chairman of the supervisory board have reviewed our course of action.
Bangen continued, “However, as an international consortium, we were not able and are not able to take steps unilaterally. In the current situation, however, it is all the more important for us to send a message by cutting all business ties with Belarus and conducting specific negotiations with our co-shareholders regarding the exit from the companies.”
