A fleet of Chinese container carriers shuttles on Russian Arctic route

By Atle Staalesen, The Independent Barents Observer - September 17, 2024
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The ships are the biggest of their kind that ever have sailed on the Northern Sea Route.

The north Russian port of Arkhangelsk is key destination for the Chinese container carriers that this year sail on the Northern Sea Route. Photo: Arkhangelsk Governor Aleksandr Tsybulsky on VK

A Russian nuclear icebreaker in early September sailed from the Chukotka Sea and into the East Siberian Sea. In its wake were the 289 meter long bulk carrier Smoke and 231 meter long container ship NewNew Star.

Sea-ice conditions in the area were complicated, icebreaker operator Rosatomflot informed on social media VK.

None of the two ships have any kind of ice-class.

According to Rosatomflot, the NewNew Star is the biggest container carrier that ever have sailed across the Russian Arctic route. It was built by a German yard in 2007 and has a deadweight of 42,000 tons and a length of 231 meters.

It is part of a fleet of container carriers operated by company Torgmoll, a Chinese company closely associated with Russian business interests.

The NewNew Star was in mid-September 2024 on its way south along the Norwegian coast with course for St.Petersburg. Map by Vesselfinder/Barents Observer

In addition to the NewNew Star, the Torgmoll also operates the NewNew Panda 1, NewNew Moon, NewNew Star 2 and the Xin Xin Shan. All of them have permissions for sailing on the Northern Sea Route this year.

The biggest of them is the NewNew Panda 1. It has a length of 261 meter and a deadweight of 53,697 tons. Judging from information from the Northern Sea Route Administration, it is due to sail across the Arctic route in early October.

Torgmoll also operates the NewNew Polar bear, the ship that is suspected of having sabotaged the Balticconnector pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.

The NewNew Moon on 13th September arrived in Arkhangelsk after sailing from China on the Northern Sea Route. Map by Marinetraffic/The Barents Observer

Several of the container vessels have the north Russian port of Arkhangelsk as their destination. The 196 meter long NewNew Moon arrived in the port city on the 13th of September.

According to authorities in Arkhangelsk, the ships all carry import consumer goods from China.

In mid-August, regional governor Aleksandr Tsybulsky said that 500 containers had arrived in town and that they were packed with spare parts for cars, household products and other consumer goods.

“And this is only the beginning,” he added. “In a couple of weeks, we expect another two ships from China with about 700-800 containers,” the governor explained.

According to Tsybulsky, a total of ten Chinese ships will visit the Port of Arkhangelsk in course of 2024.

The regional leader has himself on several occasions met representatives of Chinese companies to discuss business. In May, he was in the Chinese port city of Dalian to discuss shipments on the Northern Sea Route. In June, he followed up talks during the St.Petersburg Economic Forum.

Over the past three years, trade between Arkhangelsk and China is reported to have more than doubled. China now accounts for 32,5 percent of the region’s foreign trade, Tsybulsky says.

 

Located in Kirkenes, Norway, just a few kilometres from the borders to Russia and Finland, the Barents Observer is dedicated to cross-border journalism in Scandinavia, Russia and the wider Arctic.

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