On July 7, 2023, the container ship NewNew Polar Bear left St. Petersburg on its maiden voyage. Glavsevmorput’s marine headquarters (part of Rosatom State Corporation) will provide information and navigation support and the duty of nuclear-powered icebreakers for the newly established regular container transportation service via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) between China and Russia. The new line is a joint project of the international shipping line Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping Co and cargo agent Torgmoll.
The NewNew Polar Bear, a reinforced ice-class container ship, has a capacity of 1600 TEU (a unit of measurement equal to the volume occupied by a standard 20-foot container). On board are export products of Russian producers, mainly timber processing enterprises of the North-West. The container ship will pass through the waters of the Northern Sea Route. Depending on ice conditions, the estimated transit time will be about 28 days. It is one and a half times faster than the route through the Suez Canal, which takes 45-50 days. In China, the vessel will call at the ports of Qingdao and Tianjin, with Shanghai as the final destination.
NewNew Shipping Line’s representative in Russia, Ke Jin, noted that the Northern Sea Route is one of the strategic priorities of cooperation between China and Russia, and the expansion of transportation along this route will strengthen relations between the two countries. “NewNew Shipping Line has always been a reliable partner in logistics. For the navigation period 2023 through the NSR, we plan to deliver four vessels on the route’ ports of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad – ports of China’ and one vessel ‘port of Arkhangelsk – ports of China’. With the strong support of Rosatom and Glavsevmorput, we are confident that we will complete the NSR passage,” he said.
“The line to be created will operate in the summer-autumn navigation period connecting our northern ports with the ports of China. In the summer-autumn period, the Northern Sea Route can be navigated through open water and light ice conditions on low-ice or ice-free vessels. But these voyages are fundamentally important for rolling out the export route with containerized cargoes.”
“Since last year, by order of the President of Russia, Rosatom has been organizing regular cabotage transportation, carrying out the ‘rolling out’ of this line. Today we have witnessed the beginning of an international project on the NSR, – said Vladimir Panov, Special Representative of Rosatom State Corporation for Arctic Development, in his speech. – These voyages are pioneer and experimental. Our next task is regular year-round navigation in the eastern direction”.
“Our task is to make navigation along the NSR efficient, i.e. to ensure high speed of passage and safe. Yesterday the vessel NewNew Polar Bear was issued a permit for passage through the NSR. From the marine headquarters, the captain will be promptly sent information about the safest route, icebreakers deployment, which can help the ship pass through the ice in case of necessity,” said Sergey Zybko, Director General of GlavSevmorput. To accompany the voyage, the enterprise has allocated an experienced specialist who has worked as a ship captain in the Arctic seas for many years, has experience in navigation along the NSR at different times of the year, and has experience working with the crews of foreign vessels. He is currently on board the NewNew Polar Bear.
During the navigation period 2023, four vessels with a capacity of 1,600-3,500 TEU are planned to operate on the route St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad – Chinese ports via the NSR. One vessel with 1600 TEU will operate on the route Arkhangelsk Port – Chinese ports to transport export and import cargoes.
Earlier, Atomflot and Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping Co. signed a contract to provide services for ship escorting in the waters of the Northern Sea Route from July 15 to October 30, 2023.
The First Container Terminal (FCT) in the Bolshoi Port of St. Petersburg is part of the stevedoring holding Global Ports of the Delo Group. FCT handled the vessel NewNew Polar Bear on July 6-7, 2023.
The transit potential of the NSR demonstrates great interest from international businesses, primarily Asian and Middle Eastern companies, which see container transit through the NSR as an additional environmentally sustainable and stable route. At the end of 2020, about 1,300,000 tons of cargo were transited through the NSR and 61 vessels, 42 of which were foreign. In 2021, the transit flow increased to 2 million tons. In 2021, 86 ships passed there, including 75 foreign vessels. One of the world’s largest shipping companies, Chinese COSCO Shipping, made 14 voyages along the NSR last year.