Benefit and Risk of the Northern Sea Route to the North Pacific

Abstract

Globalization has acquired a wide recognition among countries since the 1970s. This has stimulated world trade and revolutionized the global transportation system. Especially the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which is located between the North Atlantic and the Northern Pacific along the Arctic sea, is gradually becoming a feasible international shipping route. The Lee study reviews the possible container traffic from/to East Asia to/from Northern Europe if the NSR opens. The results indicate that China is expected to have the overwhelming volume of container traffic. The NSR will be opened but more time is needed in the global shipping market. Later, efforts can be undertaken to ship general commercial shipping such as container shipping in a full opening of the NSR. This chapter concludes that due to global warming and an increasing number of technical constraints regarding navigation, the era of opening the NSR will come in the near future. Keywords: container traffic; global shipping market; international shipping route; North Pacific; Northern Sea Route (NSR)