Shipowners trial Northern Sea Route as Arctic trade opens up

Danish containership giant Maersk Line is doing it, smaller Finnish owner ESL Shipping is testing it out on two delivery voyages and Sovcomflot (SCF Group) has already done it but might do it again with a new ship type in the coming weeks.

All these shipowners and others are sending their vessels through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) — as this Russia-controlled section of the slightly longer North Eastern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage, is known — while they trial the logistics of the shorter trade route between east and west.