The Copenhagen-based company runs container liners to St Petersburg and Kaliningrad in the Baltic Sea, Novorossiysk in the Black Sea, and to Vladivostok and Vostochny on Russia’s east coast.

It carried more than 4m shipping containers last year but MSC narrowly pipped its Danish rival.

Maersk handles about one in six containers shipped worldwide. This week it said limitations on Russian air space would also affect its air freight operations.

Jonathan Roach, an analyst at shipbroker Braemar ACM, said Russian consumer goods imports would be most disrupted by the move.

“With container shipping, it’s such a variety of goods, from TVs to fridges and all that sort of thing,” he said. “It will have an impact and they’ll have to find alternative sources for some of the goods.”

Shipping analytics company Clarkson said Russia is estimated to account of 5pc of global seaborne exports, most of which is energy.

Simon MacAdam of Capital Economics said the supply shock caused by the sanctions would “intensify strains on shipping routes”, meaning elevated shipping freight rates “are unlikely to fall from their lofty heights anytime soon”.

Maersk said it was also reviewing its relationship with the Russian politician and businessman Sergey Shiskarev, with whom it owns Global Ports. The operator has six terminals in Russia.

Moscow-controlled nuclear company Rosatom is also a shareholder in Global Ports. 

Maersk said: “With Global Ports we are looking at how to comply with the ever-evolving sanctions and restrictions and preparing possible next steps.”

It came as payments giants Mastercard and Visa also took action on Russia following calls for support from the Ukrainian government.

Mastercard said it had blocked “multiple” financial institutions from its services in the wake of Western sanctions. Visa said it was also taking action to ensure compliance.