Cargo ship embarks on historic Arctic passage

“Suddenly there is an opening that gives this part of the world an advantage,” said Felix H. Tschudi, whose shipping company is Northern Iron's largest shareholder.

Willy Oestreng, chairman of research group Ocean Futures, called the trip of the Nordic Barents “historic”.

“The western world is starting to show an interest and a capability to use that route,” he said.

Atomic Icebreakers

Two days after Russia and Norway agreed last April to settle a 40-year-old dispute over economic zones in the Barents Sea, government and business leaders of the two countries met in Kirkenes to sweep away hurdles to international shipping.

Russian law still requires icebreaker escort even where ice danger is small, due to a lack of onshore mechanical or medical support. But fees and rules are starting to loosen.

“Russian companies and Russian authorities are now ready to assist,” said Mikhail Belkinms, assistant general manager of the state-owned Rosatomflot icebreaking fleet.

Lots of Russian vessels have plied the passage, and two German ships traversed it last year with small cargos delivered to Russian ports. But the Nordic Barents, an ice-class Danish bulk carrier chartered by Tschudi, is the first non-Russian ship with permission to pass without stopping.

Rosatomflot has assigned two 75,000-horsepower icebreakers to the vessel for about 10 days of the three-week voyage. Tschudi won't say how much Rosatomflot is charging but praised it as “cooperative, service-minded and pragmatic.”

“Today the route is basically competitive with the Suez Canal, and we can subtract the piracy risk,” he said.

Excluding icebreaking fees, a bulk ship that takes the Arctic route from Hamburg to Yokohama can save more than US$200,000 in fuel and canal expenses, Oestreng said.

Belkinms said insurance companies have been the main drag to developing the route.

“The Northern Sea Route is still unfamiliar to foreign ship owners and that's even more true for foreign insurance companies, which demand very high premiums,” he said.

He said icebreakers would meet the Nordic Barents off Novaya Zemlya and stick with it to the Bering Strait.

“The hardest part will be around the middle of the route, the Vilkitsky Strait,” he said. “The ice sticks there in a sort of bottleneck.”

Sanderson said he could send another four to six shiploads of ore over the top of Eurasia each summer.

“Somebody's got to blaze the trail and prove to the rest of the world that this is a commercially viable route that can be transited quite safely,” he said.

1|2

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email