China has opened a new shipping route through the Arctic Ocean which begins at Ningbo on China’s east coast, cuts through the Arctic Circle by running along Russia’s Northern Sea Route and then heads south in the North Sea, terminating at Felixstowe in eastern England, reported by China’s Xinhua news agency.
“Sea Legend,” the Chinese container shipping company, specialises in international trade with North Africa and Turkiye, officially announced the new route it has named the “Ice Silk Road” after China’s historic Silk Road route with Europe.
According to Xinhua news agency the sea company carried out a test voyage along the route last October, which took twenty days, an advantage over other routes through the Suez Canal, which take about 40 days; or around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa, which takes about 50 days.
While climate change has been already causing significant melting of ice in the Arctic and puts new threats all over the world, such as flooding and natural disasters, it has also advantages, as it has opened up new potential shipping routes.
