Dry bulk still lags far behind energy shipping as the Arctic warms and the season lengthens.
Heavy investments in the region and a rapidly changing climate have combined to expand LNG traffic volumes.
This year, for the first time, a large LNG vessel made a full eastbound transit on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) as early as May. Sovcomflot's Arc7 ice-classed, 172,600-cbm Christophe de Margerie (built 2017) loaded gas from the Yamal project and proceeded to Yangkou in China on a voyage of 21 days.
