Analyst Lynerlytica highlighted that the addition of a number of services operating on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) announced this month would increase capacity on the Asia to North Europe trade.“The start of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) season has seen a series of Arctic route services launched in August, with Korean carrier PanStar joining Chinese carriers Sea Legend, New New Shipping and OVP Shipping to offer additional capacity to North Europe and Baltic Russia, relieving some of the space pressure on the route,” said Linerlytica in its weekly report.

Chinese carrier New Legend is set to offer eight near weekly sailings via the NSR across the summer season on its Arctic Express Service (CAX).  The first sailing the service will be on the Liberia-flagged, 1,740 teu container ship Dubai Tower which is set to depart Ningbo – Zhoushan on 15 August.        According to UK forwarder Davies Turner is one of the companies taking advantage of the opening up of the Arctic route offering space on Sea Legend’s services the transit time between Ningbo - Zhoushan and the Port of Felixstowe in the UK will be 21 days. The company commented that the service “dramatically” shortens the sailing distance and reducing overall transit times during the Arctic navigation season. With most mainline container services between Asia and Europe currently transiting via the Cape of Good Hope it roughly halves transit times.

"Global supply chains continue to demand greater flexibility and resilience," said Tony Cole, head of ocean for Davies Turner.

"By offering this seasonal Northern Sea Route service, we are expanding the multimodal options available to our customers. The Polar Silk Road provides an excellent solution for time-sensitive shipments that need to arrive faster than conventional ocean freight but without the higher costs associated with air transport."

The service will see Davies Turner consolidates cargo from six major Chinese ports, including Dalian, Fuzhou, Nansha, Qingdao, Shanghai and Taicang at Ningbo before sailing directly to Felixstowe.

South Korean ferry company PanStar is deploying its first container ship, the South Korean-flagged, 2,700 teu PanStarAcro on the NSR connecting Busan with North Europe ports. The company acquired the 2011-built vessel from HMM in early August.   “PanStar Group is advancing South Korea’s first pilot operation of a container ship via the Arctic shipping route, opening a new era in maritime logistics,” the company said on its website. PanStar is advertising a route departing from Busan Newport on 22 August and arriving Felixstowe, UK on 9 September a transit of 18 days. Following Felixstowe the vessel will call the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Gdansk before returning via the Arctic to Busan.     China’s New Shipping is also reported to be deploying three vessels on voyages from China to Russia and North Europe via the NSR route.

According to the Centre for High North Logistics 2025 saw 103 transit voyages of the NSR by 88 vessels between 30 June and 30 November. These included 15 container ship voyages with eight eastbound and seven westbound. Tankers completed the largest number of passages of the Arctic route with 34 voyages last year.