CONTAINER SHIPPING ON THE NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

• Main Authors: Northern Sea Route, Jérome Verny, Jerome Verny
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key-words; Northern Sea Route
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.589.6321; http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/2009/pdf/PrizeVerny.pdf

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the principal commercial maritime routes have changed very little. With global warming, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) has opened up as a possible avenue of trade in containerized products between Asia and Europe. This paper verifies the technical and economic feasibility of regular container transport along the NSR. By adopting a model schedule between Shanghai and Hamburg, we are able to analyze the relative costs of various axes in the Asia-Europe transport network, including the NSR. While shipping through the Suez Canal is still by far the least expensive option, the NSR and Trans-Siberian Railway appear to be roughly equivalent second-tier alternatives.