China expands Arctic container shipping with record 14 voyages in 2025

With our strong presence in container shipping and airfreight trade between the Far East and Europe, the U-Freight Group notes media reports that China significantly expanded its use of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 2025, completing 14 container ship voyages between Asia and Europe, up from 11 such voyages in 2024 and seven in 2023.

The latest figures underscore a steady rise in Chinese-led container activity along the Arctic corridor and demonstrates growing confidence among Chinese operators in the seasonal Arctic route, which shortens the distance between northern China and Europe compared to traditional passages via the Suez Canal.

Shipping companies NewNew Shipping Line and Sea Legend have already signalled plans to further expand their Arctic container offerings in 2026, aiming to add sailings and improve schedule reliability during the limited summer navigation window.

The reports state that Russia’s state-owned nuclear icebreaker operator Rosatomflot said the growth in container traffic translated into a record year for containerised cargo on the NSR, reaching approximately 400,000 tons in 2025. 

One of the most high-profile voyages of the season was carried out by the containership Istanbul Bridge, which completed the first-ever direct container connection between China and the United Kingdom via the Northern Sea Route. The vessel made the passage in a record 20 days, maintaining an average speed of 16.7 knots along the Arctic corridor, demonstrating the time-saving potential of the route under favorable ice and weather conditions.

Container shipping on the Northern Sea Route has long been discussed but has been slow to develop.

For the U-Freight Group, it remains to be seen if the Arctic route can be turned into a year-round shipping corridor, and we will focus our operations on the existing route between the Far East and the Europe, which is currently diverted around the Cape of Good Hope. 

This is supplemented by our overland multimodal rail services between China and Europe.

There is also our portfolio of airfreight services, which provide an extensive range of scheduled, charter and specialist carrier options.

For more information about the U-Freight Group’s multimodal freight logistics and fulfilment operations between China, the Far East, South East Asia and Europe, please visit the relevant pages of this website, or contact your local office, which can be seen here: https://ufreight.com/locations