Polar Silk Road passage aims to speed up voyage times between East and West

A container ship has left China on a first voyage to Europe via the Arctic waters of the Northern Sea Route, marking the start of a planned new fast service between Asia and the West.

The 4,890-teu Istanbul Bridge (built 2000) completed loading on Monday at the Beiyi Container Terminal in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, in China’s Zhejiang province.

The ship is now en route to the Port of Felixstowe on the UK’s east coast.

Chinese company Sea Legend is behind the new service.

A launch ceremony for the new China-Europe Arctic Express route, dubbed the Polar Silk Road, was held in China on Monday.

The container ship, which is operated by Hong Kong-based Safetrans Line and whose exhaust gas scrubber status is described as “pending”, is due to take the NSR westbound.

It is expected in the UK on 10 October.

The voyage time from China to the UK is 18 days and aims to offer a fast service from China to Europe.

The same voyage via the Suez Canal would likely take around 40 days, with an additional 10 days added to any passage via the Cape of Good Hope.

The new service aims to connect Chinese ports like Qingdao, Dalian, Shanghai and Ningbo with western Europe.

The Istanbul Bridge’s voyage is targeted at Europe’s pre-Christmas stocking-up season.

While the route will start as a seasonal offering due to ice build-up during the winter in the NSR, China has said it plans to open up year-round sailings from 2030.

The new Arctic shipping service is likely to fuel environmental and safety fears over damage to ecosystems in the polar region and the passage of non-ice-class tonnage in remote regions.

By Lucy Hine