Chinese firm to launch Arctic shipping route till Oct

Business Recorder reports Sea Legend, a Chinese shipping firm, will launch a weekly container run across the Arctic this Saturday, operating until October 3. According to the company, its trial crossing last year from Ningbo to Felixstowe lasted 20 days, roughly half the usual time for cargo moving through the Suez Canal. Its vessel Dubai Tower is due to leave Ningbo on Saturday night, a port employee told AFP.

Sea Legend is poised to be the first company to operate scheduled container vessels along the Northern Sea Route, which follows Russia's coastline. Maersk was the earliest of several firms to use the passage in 2018, and Allianz Commercial, a business insurer, reported in June that the route had 23 container transits in 2025 compared with 15 a year earlier. Even so, several major carriers including CMA CGM, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd have pledged to steer clear of Arctic trans-shipment routes.

Analysts nonetheless regard the Arctic as a key path for future commerce, especially for China, which unveiled its Polar Silk Road plan in 2018. BIMCO's Niels Rasmussen noted that Sea Legend's departing ships will carry under 0.5 percent of weekly container volume between East and Southeast Asia and North Europe. ING's Rico Luman said Russia-friendly niche carriers could sail the route more often but see it as no true rival for now.