First Panamax Containership Makes Historic Arctic Crossing, Reaches Shanghai In 3 Weeks

The 294 m long Panamax Ship Flying Fish 1 sailed from St Petersburg in the Baltic Sea to China in just over three weeks, cutting around two weeks off the conventional route via the Suez Canal.

It will reach Shanghai today 26 Sep. It is operated by EZ Safetrans Logistics, based in Hong Kong. Ten years ago, summer container shipping across Russia’s Northern Sea Route was unimaginable, but this year, the Arctic Ocean will witness about 20 crossings linking Russian and Chinese ports through this shortcut.

Flying Fish 1 can accommodate 4890 TEUs and set a new benchmark for container shipping in the Arctic. Earlier, only small container ships carrying about 1500 to 2000 TEUs tried to cross this route.

In recent months, many huge vessels have founded a seasonal liner service between China and Russia from ports such as Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg.

Flying Fish 1 met another Chinese container vessel on its journey, marking the first encounter between two massive ships in the Arctic, only 850 nm from the North Pole, with no sea ice seen.

It maintained a speed of 16 knots along the entire route, which shows the changed Arctic ice conditions due to global warming.

The ship crossed the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea and exited via the Bering Strait close to Alaska without an icebreaker, just six days after entering Russian Arctic waters.

Once completed, the voyage from the Baltic Sea to Shanghai will be around 8000 nm long, about 4000 hm shorter than the Suez Canal Route. The detour many vessels take around South Africa due to the instability in the Red Sea adds an additional 4000 miles to the normal route to Asia.

At present, shipping services between Europe and Asia via the Arctic are confined to a 3 to 4 month window, but Arctic ice is receding, so more operators might explore this route for future opportunities