China is moving forward with a new scheduled shipping service through the Northern Sea Route (NSR). According to reporting from splash247, the service, operated by Sea Legend Line, will connect Ningbo-Zhoushan with Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Gdynia.

Reporting by The Maritime Executive, citing an article written by Edward Rhys Jones from the University of Oxford, said the NSR can shorten the journey between Europe and Asia by up to 40%. Sea Legend’s advertised transit times are between 18 and 20 days for the new service.

Sea Legend’s regular service will be focused on high-value and time-sensitive exports, targeting batteries, energy storage systems, solar equipment, and other new-energy products.

Interest in alternative trade routes has grown in recent years as conflicts and security concerns have disrupted key shipping corridors, including the Red Sea and Gulf region. Japan, South Korea, and India have also expressed interest in using the NSR as a potential alternative.

The NSR runs along Russia’s northern coast through the Arctic Circle and is generally navigable only during warmer months. However, the operating window on the NSR has widened as less amounts of Arctic sea survive the summer. A NASA report calculated the rate of Artic sea ice shrinkage to be at 12.2% per decade.

As reported by The Maritime Executive, China has been the most proactive non-Arctic nation in developing and exploring opportunities along the NSR. For Beijing, the route offers an alternative to the Malacca Strait, a key maritime corridor that handles the majority of China’s imported oil and a significant share of its trade.

Source: splash247, The Maritime Executive