A South Korean container ship is making the country's first ever commercial voyage to Europe through the Arctic.
Reuters reports that the PanStar Arco departed South Korea's Busan New Port on August 22, with plans to trial a route that hugs Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, before crossing the Bering Sea, and then moving through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) that borders Russia's Arctic Coast. The ship will eventually stop in Felixstowe in the United Kingdom, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Gdansk in Poland before making its return journey. South Korea's Oceans Ministry expects the total trip to take between 40 and 45 days.
The PanStar has a capacity of 2,758 twenty-foot equivalent units, but is loaded with just 837 TEUs, including car parts, chemical products and roughly 100 empty containers. The 3,500 mile path that cuts through the Arctic Circle takes less than half the time it takes to sail between East Asia and Europe via the Mediterranean, and has presented an intriguing alternative to Middle East routes that have become far more costly and dangerous in recent months.
The Arctic’s summer sea ice coverage has fallen by a third since 1979 due to warming ocean temperatures, widening the NSR’s navigable window, but putting efforts to make the route commercially viable at odds with efforts to slow climate change. Ships burning fossil fuels also emit what's known as black carbon, which can settle on snow and ice and speed up melting.
Although major carriers like CMA CGM, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd have all pledged to avoid Arctic shipping routes in light of those concerns, China launched the first regular cargo service through the NSR in mid August, while South Korea is testing the route as part of a push to establish regular Arctic shipping between Busan and Europe by 2030.
