The Northern Sea Route, or, on a larger scale, the Northern Sea Transport Corridor, is increasingly important amid the sanctions and the shortage of railway capacity. Can it ensure full scale replacement of traditional deep-sea routes?

In brief As of today, the Northern Sea Transport Corridor is the Arctic route for transporting cargo between the Asia-Pacific Region and the North-West ports, as well as for short-sea cargo transportation. A year-round operation should be ensured for its full-fledged operation. That, in its turn requires the construction of more icebreakers and the creation of an information system for the fleet operators.

What is the difference between the NSR and the NSTC?

Official limits of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the Kara Gate in the west and the Provideniya Bay (The Bering Strait) in the east. The Northern Sea Transit Corridor (NSTC) is a broader concept and it is the name of a project initiated by Rosatom in 2019. It is aimed at the development of logistics services for transiting cargo via the Arctic waters including the Northern Sea Route.

Earlier, the NSTC project was focused on the transit between the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region and Europe. Today, it is more referred to as a corridor for cargo shipping to Russian ports of the North-West basin (Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Saint-Petersburg, etc.) and back.

It should be noted that the throughput of the NSTC ports in the Arctic basin (including Murmansk and Arkhangelsk) is growing, according to the diagram.

An example of the international use of NSTC is the recent lauching of a regular container line between by a Chinese operator Newnew Shipping Line. The line will link the ports of China with the ports of Saint-Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Arkhangelsk. The transit time is to make about 28 days depending on the ice situation. It is 1.5 times faster as compared with the route via the Suez canal which takes 45–50 days. In China, the ships will call the ports of Qingdao and Tianjin with Shanghai being the end point.

Besides, nuclear-powered ship Sevmorput operates on the subsidized container line along the NSTC. This year’s first subsidized voyage of Sevmorput began in Saint-Petersburg on June 24. The third, extra, subsidized voyage on the Northern Sea Route will begin in the second half of August 2023 The third, extra, subsidized voyage on the Northern Sea Route will begin in the second half of August. The route includes Great Port of Saint-Petersburg, the ports of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Dikson, Tiksi, Pevek, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Magadan, Vostochny, Nakhodka, Vladivostok.

Year-round navigation

Year-round navigation on the Northern Sea Route is to be ensured from 2024.

“From next year, with the support of nuclear-powered icebreakers, regular year-round navigation for the export of Arctic products towards Asia will begin,” said Vladimir Panov, special representative of Rosatom for the development of the Arctic. According to him, 10 icebreakers currently operate on the Northern Sea Route including 7 nuclear-powered icebreakers and 3 conventional icebreakers of Rosmorport.

“By 2030, the group of icebreakers will be increased to 14 units”

“The navigation season of 2023 shows that 7 nuclear-powered icebreakers is not enough for the western sector, 3 conventional icebreakers are deployed additionally. Two of them are planned for decommissioning before 2026 due their age exceeding 30 years. Therefore, by the end of the third quarter of 2023 we should make a decision on construction of 4 conventional icebreakers and to place an order at Zvvezda shipyard. The negotiations are underway. By 2030, the group of icebreakers will be thus increased to 14 units. To ensure the operation of icebreakers, 431 specialists will be needed. That a crucial ‘atomic’ personnel for nuclear-powered icebreakers. In general, the required shipboard personnel is estimated at 7,500 people by 2030 while the minimum training period is 5.5 years,” he said.

In 2023, several infrastructure projects on the Northern Sea Route are being implemented by Hydrographic Company (part of Rosatom). First of all, it is the further reconstruction of the Sea Canal in the Gulf of Ob (Kara Sea). More than ten powerful dredgers will be deployed in the navigation season of 2023 to implement those projects.

To ensure year-round navigation on the Northern Sea Route, it is planned to create a single digital platform receiving digital data from various satellites and other sources.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, Senior Expert-Analyst, IPEM: “NSTC can become an alternative not only to the Suez Canal, but also to the ‘Suez-Singapore’ sea route. When using NSTC, the distance between Europe and Asia is 40% shorter compared to the way via the Suez Canal, hence clear savings in time and expenses for fuel. Besides, there is a problem of queues in the Suez Canal waters ... The NSR can also become an alternative to railway transportation, although not for every group of products and not for every route. It should be taken into account that a numerous important and large deposits are concentrated in the center of the country, and transportation from production sites by rail is most profitable. However, with a significant increase in ports’ capacity, modernization of transport routes and construction of new ones, the ports of the NSR can become major hubs for both new routes (including river ones) and new cargoes. In this case, the NSR development will let debottleneck the railways, particularly the Eastern Polygon, and will also ensure the eastward redirection of exports."

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