China to start shipping via the northern sea route

[mati]

It's going to get busy up there...

http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2013/03/china-starts-commercial-use-northern-sea-route-14-03

[Jim Hunt]

See also:

http://econnexus.org/the-strange-tale-of-the-mail-and-the-snow-dragon/

[frankendoodle]

http://portal.inter-map.com/#mapID=49&groupID=297&z=1.0&up=-310704.2&left=2001105.4

Check out the interactive map at Arctic Portal.

[Jim Hunt]

There are now 213 "Permissions for navigation on the water area of the Northern sea route" issued for 2013.

Most are for Russian flagged vessels, but a few are from China or Hong Kong. Then there's Norway, Netherlands, France, Luxembourg.........

[Anne]

Interesting article on polar shipping in yesterday's FT.

<snip>Valentin Davydants, captain of Russia’s Atomflot fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers based in Murmansk, forecast a more than tenfold increase between Asia and Europe by 2021, by which time the route could be open eight months a year. South Korea’s Maritime Institute estimates the NSR, previously known as the Northeast Passage, could account for a quarter of Asia-Europe trade by 2030…
The sailing time from Rotterdam to Kobe, in Japan, or Busan, in South Korea, using the NSR, with ships crossing between the Arctic and Pacific via the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska, should be 23 days compared with 33 days via the canal, according to Mr Davydants. From the northern Russian port of Murmansk the journey would take 18 days using the NSR versus 37 with the canal...
Mr Davydants forecasts that, by 2021, 25m tonnes of liquefied natural gas and oil could be transported out of the Russian Arctic on top of 15m tonnes of Asia-Europe trade, up from the 1.26m tonnes transported between the two continents last year via the NSR.

Iceland is intending to build a new port at Finna Fjord in the north-east.

The International Maritime Organisation is developing a draft International code of safety for ships operating in polar waters so we can all rest easy at night. 

[TerryM]

It's a shame that the Canadian Government hasn't commercialized the NWP. Seems they think global warming is just a hoax that will be revealed shortly.
I love my country, but the guys that are running it would make the Tea Party blush


Terry

[anonymous]

It's a shame that the Canadian Government hasn't commercialized the NWP.

I think, it's mostly because the southern neighbor country claims the NWP is international waters.

[JimD]

It's a shame that the Canadian Government hasn't commercialized the NWP.

I think, it's mostly because the southe ;Drn neighbor country claims the NWP is international waters.

Well we would change our tune post-haste if the Canuck's would just quit being stuffy and apply for statehood 

[Jim Hunt]

According to China Daily:

Cosco Shipping, a listed company within China's shipping giant Cosco Group, made its maiden journey on the route with a multipurpose vessel on Thursday.

The ship left Dalian port in Northeast China's Liaoning province and is scheduled to take 33 days to reach Europe. It is the first time a Chinese merchant ship has traveled to Europe via the Arctic Northeast Passage.

The total deadweight tonnage of the multipurpose vessel is 19,461 tons. The ship is expected to arrive in the Bering Strait on Aug 25.

[JimD]

Jim Hunt

From one of the other threads Espen pointed out a article which indicated that China was going to send 15% of its container ships via the arctic ocean 2020.  I ran some numbers to see what that meant.  It is amazing.  I hope I made a mistake.

Espen

Interesting number.  Out of curiosity I was wondering how many ships that might mean.

In 2011 China's container port traffic was 140 million teu's (an industry measure  - a teu is the equivalent to a 20ft sea container).

From Wiki the average size of a container ship is roughly 10,000 teu's (there are a few as large as 16,000).

14,000 container ship loads then in 2011 for China.

15% would then work out to 2100 ships crossing the arctic just from China!!   Yikes!!

Considering all the other countries who would also be using the Arctic Ocean routes we  could be looking at several thousand crossings a season. 

For reference I found reports that the number of crossings of the Northern Sea Route in 2012 was about 60 and the number of trips through the Northwest passage was 20 or so.  Even if we assume that the Arctic total was 100 passages last year then we are talking about an increase of around 30 times in 7 years.  I can only imagine the impacts.

[Jim Hunt]

From one of the other threads Espen pointed out a article which indicated that China was going to send 15% of its container ships via the arctic ocean 2020.  I ran some numbers to see what that meant.  It is amazing.  I hope I made a mistake.

I don't think you made any mistake Jim. See "The Voyage of the Snow Dragon" for a bit more background. I was sat around a table with Dr. Huigen Yang from the Polar Research Institute of China shortly before he got up to inform the assembled throng at "The Arctic Summit" that China could potentially send goods worth at least half a trillion dollars per annum via the NSR by 2020.

[JimD]

Copied from a post by Wayne on the ASIB.

The fist container ship is transiting the Northern Sea Route.

http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2013/08/first-container-ship-northern-sea-route-21-08

[Jim Hunt]

The first container ship is transiting the Northern Sea Route.

I don't think it's a container ship. According to China Daily (see above) the Yong Sheng is "a multipurpose vessel". According to the (British) Observer it's carrying a "cargo of steel and heavy equipment".

The Barents Observer shows a picture of a different vessel. Here's one of the Yong Sheng.

[JimD]

Thanks Jim

Darn reporters can't even get the right picture in their story!

Check this link out.  The worlds largest ship was just launched.  Holds 18,000 containers.

20 more on order.

Someday we will have a picture of it next to an iceberg.

On the plus side this ship is much more energy efficient than the smaller ships.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/26/business/maersk-triple-e-biggest-ship

[Jim Hunt]

Slightly stale news from Businessweek:

Sometime in late August, if all goes as planned, a Korean tanker will set sail from a South Korean port. Destination: Rotterdam. Nothing special about that port of call. What’s unusual is the route—above Russia, in waters once clogged with ice—which has largely melted.

Hyundai Glovis, the shipping arm of Hyundai Motor, plans to start a test service on the Russian route carrying oil. The pathway is open each year for about four months until October. “We want to be one of the first to develop this in order to take a leading position when the route becomes more commercially viable,” says Kim Sung Ho, an official at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.