MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. The number of foreign companies' voyages along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) doubled from 7 in 2023 to 13 in 2024, First Deputy Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Gadzhimagomed Guseynov said.
"Over two years, the number of foreign companies' voyages practically doubled - from 7 in 2023 to 13 last year," he posted on Telegram.
The international marine logistics has faced certain challenges over recent years, he continued. "Jams on the Suez Canal, the conflict on the Red Sea, the piracy on African routes. All this is reflected in transport costs on key routes. In the middle of last year, the Shanghai-Rotterdam route index exceeded $8,000 per 40ft container."
This situation is a precondition to launch the Northern Sea Route as a full-fledged transport corridor, he added.
The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route in the Russian Arctic that runs along Russia's northern shores of the Arctic Ocean seas (the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering Seas). It connects the Russian Federation's European and Far Eastern ports, as well as mouths of navigable Siberian rivers, into a single transport system. NSR's length from the Kara Gate Strait to the Providence Bay is 5,600 km.