Chinese Cargo Ship to Make First Weekly Arctic Voyage Via Northern Sea Route

The vessel left the port of Ningbo in eastern China, heading toward the Bering Strait to the northeast, then turning west along Russia's northern coasts. According to a schedule published by Sea Legend, it is due to reach the British port of Felixstowe on September 7, before calling at Hamburg, Germany, and then Gdynia, Poland, during the same week. Other industry players have already transited through the Arctic, with Danish shipping giant Maersk being the first to do so in 2018. This route via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is twice as short as the one passing through the Suez Canal in Egypt.

In August 2013, the cargo ship Yong Sheng became the first Chinese vessel to use this route. This inaugural voyage, which is expected to be weekly, is part of China's "Polar Silk Road" project and allows avoiding an increasingly unstable Middle East region, between the war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran since late February, and new threats from Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea in support of Tehran. Sea Legend will operate this circuit until October, while seasonal Arctic melting makes the crossing possible without icebreakers.