

Danish company Maersk, the world's largest operator of container shipping, is about to send the first-ever container ship through the Arctic along Russia’s Northern Sea Route. While the route has seen rising traffic to transport oil and natural gas in recent years, the voyage of the

a medium-sized container ship capable of carrying nearly 3,600 containers, will be an industry first.



A Maersk representative involved in the project who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the

Venta Maersk

will be sailing via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from the Far East. The vessel is

slated to depart from Vladivostok this week

heading for Saint Petersburg carrying a load of frozen fish. The company has yet to reveal the specifics of this voyage or its general plans for Arctic shipping going forward. Such details are expected after the vessel arrives in Europe in mid-September, company sources revealed.



It remains to be seen what this voyage means in terms of further developing shipping on the Arctic route and if container shipping can become viable on this hitherto niche trade route. "This is not the large container ship traffic that will change global shipping, once it becomes commonplace through the Northern Sea Route. But it is another small step in that direction," explains Michael Byers, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia.





Maersk initially voiced interest in sending a container ship along the NSR when it met with Russian officials in November 2017. The company’s CEO Søren Skou

confirmed the company’s plans in an interview at the end of 2017

. A permit to sail the route

was granted by the Russian NSR Administration on July 23rd

. It allows the the vessel to sail in a westward direction on the route between September 1st - 20th.



The

Venta Maersk

is part of a

brand new generation of seven ice-class 1A feeder container ships

expected to plough the waters of the Baltic Sea. The vessels are among the world’s largest ice-class ships specifically designed to operate in cold and icy waters year-round and are capable of operating in unconsolidated ice up to 1 meter thick.



With a length of 200 meters and a breadth of 35.2 meters the ship is able to carry up to 3,600 twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEU). The shallow draft wide-beam vessel was built at the Zhoushan Shipyard in China.





Venta Maersk,Maersk Planned Voyage for Past Year