NSR Shipping Traffic – Activities in December 2020

Shipping traffic in December 2020 is generally in line with the trend of the winter navigation period of the whole year – the number of voyages is on the same level and the number of vessels involved in navigation is increased compared to last year.

Especially it is worth highlighting the very late voyages in the east. Previously, such voyages were observed in this period only when new LNG tankers went from the shipyard via the NSR to the port of Sabetta for their first loading. This December, one tanker went towards the port of Dalian (“Nikolay Zubov” vessel) with cargo, and another, after unloading in the Tangshan port, set off to the port of Sabetta (“Vladimir Voronin” vessel). In addition to these two voyages, 3 more, not related to the Yamal LNG project, were observed in the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. Two general cargo ships “RZK Constanta” and “Taimyr” departed from Pevek to Arkhangelsk, and another general cargo ship “Vyacheslav Anisimov” left Pevek and went to the port of Provideniya.

The rest of the traffic returned from summer-autumn navigation to the usual course of winter-spring navigation. Icebreakers resumed their active work: 4 nuclear icebreakers are already on the routes of the NSR (among them is the new icebreaker “Arktika”, “50 let Pobedy” is still in the registry port of Murmansk). In addition to the main work – laying a channel in the ice and escorting ships – the icebreakers were also involved in the rescue operation, which began in mid-December and ended only in January. The nuclear icebreakers got out a ship “Sparta III”, which was blocked in the ice of the Yenisey Bay (see the news at our web-page dtd 20.01.2020).