For the first time, the Northern Sea Route is witnessing considerable maritime traffic, evident from a recent incident where 2 Chinese container vessels, Flying Fish 1 and NewNew Star, crossed paths only 750 nautical miles from the North Pole.
This shows that with drastic climate change and melting ice across the north and south poles, new shipping routes might emerge sooner than expected, reshaping shipping across the globe.
The Northern Sea Route is emerging as a trade route which could be used on a massive scale in the near future.
For now, container ship Flying Fish 1 is the biggest to cross the Arctic. She sailed from Saint Petersburg to Qingdao, while NewNew Star started from Nansha and was headed to Russia.
Though Arctic container shipping has long been dominated by Chinese Ships, the Danish Company Maersk made a trial journey on the route in 2018 with Vnta Maerk. His experiment showed the potential of this route in decreasing transit time between Asia and Europe.
However, at present, regular shipping through the route is quite challenging due to the ice conditions.
More Arctic trips are being planned by operators based in China and the Northern Sea Route is being seen as a viable alternative to other shipping routes.
