Arkhangelsk, Russia (Ports Europe) – On August 5, 2024, China and Russia launched a rail-sea service, Arctic Express No 1, which will transport containers by railway from Moscow to Arkhangelsk, the only port in northwestern Russia. From Arkhangelsk, containerships will move the boxes to China across the Arctic Ocean.
The 13,000-km Arctic container shipping link will transport goods in 20-25 days. This is about one week faster than Russia’s Arctic Northern Sea Route (NSR).
“The infrastructure in our countries is inadequate to meet our growing logistics and transportation needs fully, and it’s imperative to open new logistics channels to expand Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation further,” China’s ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, said.
“China has always advocated the creation of Arctic shipping routes. Over the past decade, the leaders of China and Russia have continued to pay attention to the development of Arctic shipping routes, and the governments have established mechanisms to explore Arctic cooperation,” he added.
Zhang said that 14 round trips have been completed since July 2023 when China’s Yangpu New New Shipping’s launched the first regular container shipping service between China and ports of Russia’s Arctic Ocean. The 28-day voyage departed St Petersburg and arrived in Shanghai after calling at Qingdao and Tianjin.
The ambassador continued: “Sea-rail intermodal transport links and cooperation between Russia and China in shipbuilding will inject new meaning into the development of the Ice Silk Road”.
Russia fixated on the Arctic Northern Sea Route
Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom, signed in July an agreement with Yangpu New new to operate routes through the NSR and to build up to five ice-breaking container ships. Rosatom wants to move 50 million tonnes of cargo through the NSR in 2024.
Facts, figures and fiction
There has been a flurry of announcements about Russia’s Arctic Northern Sea Route (NSR), indicating the urgency attached to this alternative transport route. Moscow sees the NSR as an alternative to traditional sea corridors via the Baltic and the Black Seas, and the Suez Canal, especially given the West sanctions-driven redirection of its trade towards Asia.
Russia’s bombastic forecasts for Northern Sea Route
The total capacity of seaports in the waters of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) by 2030 should increase 2.7 times compared to 2024 and reach 127.5 million tonnes per year, Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt said. He added that the cargo transported along the NSR should quadruple and reach 150 million tonnes in 2030.
Starovoyt mentioned that the NSR allows cargo to be transported without passing through the Baltic or Black Sea straits, which could be blocked in the event of an escalation of tensions with NATO countries.
Vladimir Panov, special representative for Arctic development of the state corporation Rosatom and deputy chairman of the state commission for Arctic development went even further and said that the cargo volume along the NSR could increase 6.8 times by 2035 compared to 2024 and exceed 250 million tonnes.
Already in August 2022, the Russian government approved a development plan for the NSR according to which the annual cargo flow along the NSR should be 150 million tonnes in 2030, and 220 million tonnes in 2035. Both figures are unrealistic unless China’s companies take over the NSR. China is keen to “work with Moscow” in developing the route.
Russian giant state-owned Rosatom company even proposed the concept of the “Great Northern Sea Route,” which would also cover ports that are entry and exit points to the NSR, such as St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Vladivostok.
Northern Sea Route
NSR is a 5,600 km long shipping route, defined by Russian legislation as running from the Karskaza Door to Novaya Zemlya straits in the west, along the Russian Arctic coast above Siberia through the Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, and Chukchi Sea, to Cape Zhelaniya on the Bering Strait.
Cargo traffic on Russia’s Northern Sea Route increases in 2023
The entire route lies in Arctic waters and within Russia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). It is included in what has been called the Northeast Passage. The NSR does not include the Barents Sea, and therefore does not reach the Atlantic.
Russia’s Northern Sea Route only for Russia
The NSR currently serves the Arctic ports and the major rivers of Siberia by importing fuel, equipment, food, and exporting timber and minerals. Some parts of the route are ice-free for only two months per year, but melting Arctic ice caps are likely to increase traffic and the commercial viability of the NSR.
Reference – Russia’s Arctic and Far East ports projects
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