New surveys of marine traffic along the northern sea route show a total absence of international transit sailings.
In contrast, partly empty Russian vessels are trafficked.
The international NSR has been reduced to a Russian transport corridor.
This is revealed in a new analysis by the Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL) at Nord University, which since 2016 has mapped marine traffic in the NSR water area. The statistics show the traffic for 2022.
– We see that Russia is using the Northern Sea Route mostly to export oil and gas and as a transit route for repositioning ships from one Russian port to another and between Russia and Asia. Some of the transit ships ran empty, and some had little cargo. In total, we see 43 transit sailings, 24 of which sailed without cargo, says Kjell Stokvik, CEO of CHNL.
The traffic is registered based on the vessels’ AIS data in 2022.
CHNL will monitor the situation.
NSR Shipping activities in 2022 – Centre for High North Logistics (chnl.no)
