Germany suspects two companies of delivering titanium ore to Crimea
Two German companies, Hansa Heavy Lift and Heinz Corleis are suspected of violating sanctions regarding the Crimea, German radio station Deutschlandfunk reported, prompting the Prosecutor’s Office of Hamburg to file criminal charges against them.
Allegedly, the companies were to deliver titanium ore to the Russian mainland but cargo ended up in the Crimea instead, Deutschlandfunk say.
The HHL Mississippi cargo ship belonging to Hansa Heavy Lift was in Kavkaz port in Krasnodar on November 23, 2017 with about ten thousand tons of titanium ore on board. The representative of the company told Deutschlandfunk that its ships did not visit the Crimea and that the company checks its clients and transported goods in order not to violate sanctions.
Another ship, the MS Callisto belonging to Heinz Corleis also delivered a large shipment to Kavkaz port in December 2017. The ship’s cargo capacity is 25,000 tons. The company stated that its ship delivered cargo from Norway to Kazkaz port at the end of 2017. “We are not our responsible for where for where the cargo was sent afterwards. The sanctions were not violated,” the company’s representatives said.
According to the radio station, the cargoes were reloaded onto the Russian ship Nefterudovoz-2 that headed for the Crimea instead of the Russian mainland. Both German ships were sailing under a Liberian flag.
Moreover, the article says that the Norwegian company Titania Kronos that mines ore near Jossingfjord in the southwest of Norway could have also violated sanctions. German ships were transporting ore that was mined for Germany, the radio station reports. Norwegian authorities are looking into the activities of the Titania Kronos. The company stated that they took measures to prevent the incident from happening again and that they have worked with Kavkaz port in the past without incident.
Andrei Klimenko, a journalist for the Black Sea News was monitoring the movement of the ships, Deutschlandfunk wrote. According to him, Russia, Norwegian miners and the German companies all pretended that the cargo was shipped to Kavkaz. According to Vodnyi Transport portal, the Nefterudovoz 2 belongs to the Russian Transflot shipping agency.
Hansa Heavy Lift and Heinz Corleis are not the first German companies to run afoul of trade sanctions. Earlier, German conglomerate Siemens was also caught up in a scandal because of shipments to the Crimea. Siemens Gas Turbines Technologies Joint Venture, a subsidiary of Siemens AG and Power Machines produced these turbines and delivered them to factories of Rostec.
Later, Siemens stated that they supplied turbines to Rostec’s subsidiary company, Technopromexport in Krasnodar region, and then the latter modified and sent them to the Crimea.