Melting Arctic Ice Could Transform International Shipping Routes -Study
Melting ice in the Arctic Ocean could yield new trade routes in international waters, reducing the shipping industry’s carbon footprint and weakening Russia’s control over trade routes through the Arctic, a study found.With climate change rapidly warming the world’s oceans, the future of the Arctic Ocean looks grim. Climate models show that parts of the Arctic that were once covered in ice year-round are warming so quickly that they will be reliably ice-free for months on end in as few as two decades.
The Swedish Club Makes Arctic Trade Safer
According to a new publication issued by the Swedish Club, operators transiting the polar regions are not always fully prepared for the unique challenges that they will face. Yet informing their P&I Club and Underwriter allows the owner to get access to hands-on advice that will reduce their exposure to these increased risks. As longer ice free summers and increased offshore operations focus attention on the polar regions, transits to and from the arctic ports are set to increase significantly.
The New Polar Code and Commercial Aspects of Arctic Shipping
Per Sønderstrup, Head of Centre, Danish Maritime Authority is not only dealing with the shipping around Denmark, with some 40,000 ships passing Copenhagen every year, and another 20,000 ships passing the Stora Belt passage in and out from the Baltic Sea. His department also governs shipping activities in a much larger and environmentally more challenging area, Greenland. "We have there a coastline of about 40,000 kilometres and it is a quite different challenge we have out there," he says, referring to shipping safety issues. The number of ships operating in this huge area is small.
Behemoth in the Offing?
Attuned to the liner shipping industry's unerring drive for economies of scale, classification society Lloyd's Register (LR) has developed a conceptual design of container vessel incorporating a 12,500-TEU capacity. Although some 55-60 percent greater in slot capacity than the biggest cellular vessels ordered to date, the envisaged Ultra Large Container Ship (ULCS) would be able to transit the Suez Canal and access key ports. LR considers that there are no insurmountable technical challenges to vessels of 12,500 TEU, and believes that it is only a matter of time before such tonnage makes its appearance in deep sea trade. The next five to 10 years could see the uptake of the envisaged new breed of behemoths by the container shipping industry.
