First commercial trip on Arctic Ocean route planned
March 28, 2013 Category Logistics, Ports & sea transport
A Chinese shipping firm is planning the country’s first commercial voyage through a shortcut across the Arctic Ocean to the United States and Europe this year, Yang Huigen, Director General of the Polar Research Institute of China, said. Last year, the icebreaker Xuelong explored the route. For China, the route would save time and money. The distance from Shanghai to Hamburg is 5,200 kilometers shorter via the Arctic than via the Suez Canal, Yang said. According to one scenario, 5% to 15% of China’s international trade, mostly container traffic, would use the route by 2020. “We see a potential there but it will not be the new Suez Canal,” said Christian Bonfils, Managing Director of Denmark-based Nordic Bulk Carriers, which sent 10 ships through the route last year carrying products such as iron ore. “You will not see a boom in the construction of ice-class vessels – the season is too short,” he said of a shipping season that lasts from about July to November, referring to ships needing specially hardened hulls. Sergei Frank at Russia’s Sovcomflot, said that there had been a steady increase in the numbers of vessels using the route in recent years. The thaw will also make it easier to reach remote regions in the Arctic, without crossing from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
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