Cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 2023 exceeded the target of Russian federal project ‘Development of the Northern Sea Route’ (supervised by Rosatom) by more than 250,000 tonnes and reached 36.254 million tonnes.
Alexey Likhachev, Rosatom Director General, noted that the record cargo traffic was achieved prior the end of the year thanks to partner companies, primarily NOVATEK whose LNG cargo accounts for more than a half of the traffic, as well as Gazprom Neft, LUKOIL, and Nornickel that found an opportunity to redirect cargo from the western to the eastern direction.
There was also an increase in transit traffic with 2.129 million tonnes transported that led to a historical maximum reach in 2023. ‘Transit cargo traffic is a marker of the demand for the Northern Sea Route so from the marine logistics business’s point of view its growth is the most important result,’ said Vladimir Panov, Rosatom special representative for Arctic development.
Foreign shipping companies’ interest in the Northern Sea Route is growing as well. In 2023, the Maritime Operations Headquarters of GlavSevmorput (a part of Rosatom group) provided escort and support of voyages for regular container shipping service via the NSR between Russia and China.
A total of 1218 permits were issued during 2023 (compared to 1163 in 2022) for navigation in the waters of the Northern Sea Route including 115 foreign companies (55 in 2022). 80 transit voyages were held via the NSR (47 voyages in 2022). In addition, three regular return cabotage voyages along the Northern Sea Route between the north-western part of Russia and the Far East regions were performed in 2023.
Russia is the only country in the world that has a nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet. Today it consists of four nuclear-powered ships of previous generations, three newest universal nuclear-powered icebreakers of the 22220 project (Arktika, Sibir and Ural) and the world’s only nuclear-powered transport vessel Sevmorput.
The Northern Sea Route is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Its development as an international logistics corridor is ensured through the establishment of regular freight traffic, construction of new nuclear icebreakers and modernisation of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom enterprises take an active part in this work. The NSR’s further development will contribute to strengthening resilience of the global supply chain.
Also published on Medium.
