In light of economic sanctions against Russia most western companies are shying away from doing business with the country. New data suggests this also holds true along Russia’s Northern Sea Route.
Based on data from Russia’s NSR Administration the route is not expected to see any international transits in 2022, a first in almost 15 years. In 2021 Russia’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), a seasonal shipping route providing a shortcut for ships traveling between Europe and Asia, saw record-levels of international transit shipping reaching 2 million tons. Last year 86 voyages by vessels from almost two dozen countries traversed the route.
Between 2009 – when the first non-Russian commercial vessels transited the route – and 2021, hundreds of vessels traveled along the route transporting more than 10m tons of cargo.
Not only is the route seeing no international transits where ships travel the entirety of the route from Europe to Asia or vice versa, it has in fact been almost fully abandoned by non-Russian carriers.
The only non-Russian flagged vessels that remain on the route are LNG carriers transporting LNG for Novatek, which among others fly the flags of Hong Kong, Cyprus and the Bahamas. Läs artikel