How attractive is the Northern Sea Route for container shipping? An economic model

Olivier Faury (1) , Ali Cheaitou (2) , Laurent Etienne (3) , Laurent Fedi (4) , Patrick Rigot-Muller (5) , Scott Stephenson (6)

1 Métis Lab EM Normandie
2 UoS - University of Sharjah
3 LABISEN-KLAIM - Knowledge Learning and Information Modelling
4 Kedge BS - Kedge Business School
5 Maynooth University - National University of Ireland Maynooth
6 UCONN - University of Connecticut

Every year, COSCO sends a vessel with containers through the Arctic. This year, Maersk followed suit with the voyage of the 3,956 TEU vessel, Venta. Meanwhile, Arctic shipping hubs are being planned, such as at the ice-free port of Murmansk. Currently, cargo shipped through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is composed of raw materials from oil and gas exploitation, a market subject to volatile prices and finite resources. However, sustainable economic development cannot not be based entirely on commodities with these characteristics and that depend on international market volatility. Thus, the shipment of manufactured goods along the NSR may be the next step in its evolution. Academics agree on the general decline in ice extent and thickness; yet, variability in ice conditions and poorly charted bathymetry in shallow waters may hamper the development of the NSR as a periodic shipping lane for containers.

Domaines: Modélisation et simulation

Olivier Faury, Ali Cheaitou, Laurent Etienne, Laurent Fedi, Patrick Rigot-Muller, et al.. How attractive is the Northern Sea Route for container shipping? An economic model. 27th Annual Conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists, Jun 2019, Athens, Greece. ⟨hal-03354313⟩