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The Nordic Orion’s route will shave an estimated four days of travel time — worth up to US$200,000 in savings — when it reaches its destination, the Finnish port of Pori, on Oct. 7 and delivers the coal to Ruukki Metals, a Finnish steel producer.

Nordic Bulk Carriers said it incurred the additional expense of the precedent-setting traverse because of encouragement from the Canadian government.

“Without them, honestly, we could not have done it nor would we have,” Edward Coll, the chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal.

For example, the icebreaker escort for any ship traveling north of the 60th parallel costs approximately $50,000-a-day, according to the Canadian Coast Guard’s Marine Communications and Traffic Services, and the government covered the cost.

Canada requires registration for all international ships weighing more than 500 tons using the Northwest Passage, in part as an acknowledgement of it sovereignty over the waterway.

Canada’s enthusiasm for developing a time-saving route in global trade through the Northwest Passage arises from a rivalry with Russia, which has developed at least 10 ports on the competing Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage.

A Chinese vessel last August became the first container transporting freighter to transit the route in a journey two weeks shorter than the usual one through the Suez Canal. And last November, Russian gas export company Gazprom made the first delivery of liquefied natural gas through the Northeast Passage, sailing from Norway east to Japan.