Is the Arctic route opening up for container shipping?

With our strong presence in container shipping and airfreight trade between the Far East and the UK, the U-Freight Group notes multiple media reports that the shipping world is leaning more to using the Arctic ocean routes to access the European market.

With Arctic summer navigation well underway, Chinese operator Newnew Shipping is expanding the service it begun in 2023. Last year it made 13 Northern Sea Route voyages moving 20,000 containers. It is expecting to increase that number this year.

Another Chinese niche operator, Sea Legend Shipping, is also expected to launch a liner service between China and northern Europe.

The seasonal offering is reported to consist of an 18-day trip between Qingdao, Shanghai and Ningbo to Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Gdansk. The reports suggest it will be the first service of its kind connecting several Asian and European ports along the same route. 

At present container shipping via the Arctic is limited to a period of four to five months between July and November. But Chinese companies aim to launch year-round routes via the Northern Sea Route by 2030, which would be a game changer in the Far East to Europe shipping trade.

More information about the services can be seen in the following links:

https://gcaptain.com/chinese-companies-dispatch-multiple-container-ships-along-arctic-route-for-faster-europe-trade/

https://gcaptain.com/south-korea-to-launch-arctic-shipping-trials-in-2026-minister-says/

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 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