Northern Sea Route (NSR) has opened two weeks earlier than last year and is now ready for commercial shipping traffic, Tokyo-based Global Ice Centre (GIC) said. Lower than average temperatures last season resulted in the passage opening in September but this year NSR opened last week.
The route has been eagerly adopted by shipowners as an alternative to the Panama and Suez canals. SCF Group (Sovcomflot) announced a few days ago that it plans to increase the numbers of commercial voyages using the NSR.
It has been in use by vessels escorted by Russian icebreakers since late June. Now enough ice has melted north of the New Siberian islands to allow ships pass through with minimal risk of collision. Large areas of sea ice remain in the north-western passage along the Canadian coast though.