But the strongest interest for the Northern Sea Route is no longer among Arctic explorers. The Russian and international shipping industry see the ongoing climate changes and the retreating of the summer ice-cap in the Arctic as a new opportunity. The distance from Europe to Asia is much shorter when sailing north instead of using the Suez channel or sail around Africa. Shorter sailing route save time and save fuel. In other words; save money. Also, the Arctic is free of pirates....&
But, when the future history of the Arctic will be written, 2010 will be marked off as the breakthrough year for commercial shipping along the Northern Sea Route. Not because the Arctic is crowded with vessels. Not because there are big money yet. But, because there are so many different shipping interests involved and because Russia and foreign shipping companies agrees on the basic principles for using the route.
The vessel "Baltica" was the first ever high-tonnage tanker to sail with petroleum products from Europe to Asia via the north. The 100,000 tons tanker made the Northern Sea Route faster than expected. Other tankers have also sailed from Murmansk to Russia’s northeastern corner with oil-products this summer. Some Sovcomflot tankers will sail from the Varandey oil-terminal in Nenets Autonomous Area and eastbound now in September.
When the bulk-carrier “MV Nordic Barents” sails from the Northern Norwegian harbor of Kirkenes next week loaded with iron-ore concentrate, also that vessel writes itself into the history book of the new Arctic. The vessel is heading for China and will then be the first ever foreign flag vessel to sail the entire Northern Sea Route in transit without entering any Russian harbor.
http://www.barentsobserver.com/the-futu ... 16319.htmlThe official said the voyage will attract the attention of freight forwarders to the transport capacities of the Northern Sea Route, which is the shortest seaway from the ports of western Europe and Russia to the Far East and South-East Asia.
Olersky said that in the future, the Northern Sea Route could replace the much longer passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Suez Canal.
http://en.rian.ru/news/20100611/159388712.htmlThe Arctic Sea route is now open for two months in the late summer, starting next year it is predicted that sea traffic between Europe and Asia will increasingly use this route to save time, fuel and money rather than Suez or Panama.
While the big multinational companies are interested in saving money first and foremost the reason they are doing so is a massive increase in the efficiency of shipping goods between Europe and Asia about 17% of the year. Once one company makes a move like this the rest tend to fall like domino's because everyone wants to get in on a 'good thing'.
In turn this creates incentives for Norway and Russia and Canada to improve their ice surveys and Arctic naval/coast guard detachments. This will give better data for the climate change researchers to work with and many more eyewitness accounts of what is actually going on.
If the route is as profitable as projected you will see a shift in shipping cycles for the major companies to take the best advantage of the arctic season they can, which in turn will improve efficiency and conserve a lot of shipping fuel making Asian goods cheaper in Europe than they already are.