A seemingly curious incident – a huge ship carrying thousands of containers did not fit into the curve of the Suez Canal. But the more time passed and the harder the tugboats started puffing at the metal carcass, the more it became clear that the curiosity was turning into drama
Global prices for all goods transported via the canal, from grain to oil, started to rise. The traders on the stock exchanges in all the financial capitals started to rush. Excavators rustled under the belly of the ship, digging out the body from the shore. And navigators hustled to find new diversions roads.
Here it is the Russian icebreakers in the Arctic region and the Chinese merchant fleet in Guangzhou. And not for nothing. Navigation at the Northern Sea Route begins, which is becoming a year-round event.
It happened so that Russia prepared everything to bring this route to a new height. Here is what Norwegian journalists from NRK say about navigation in 2020 – “Among all the ships that passed the Northern Sea Route this year there was not a single Norwegian. But according to the statistics there were a lot of Chinese vessels or vessels heading to China. This shows how important it is for China to be able to use this route to take goods to and from European markets. The route along Russia’s northern coast is about a third shorter than the Indian Ocean route through the Suez Canal. We know that goods shipped to Asia may include ore, pulp and fertilizers from European countries, including Scandinavian ones. From Asia, on the other hand, parts for wind farms and railway projects are being transported to Europe, as we have seen. The number of the so called target crossings – i.e. voyages to and from ports along the Northern Sea Route – has also increased considerably. We recorded 2,559 voyages, and for the period up to and including August alone. Compared to the Suez Canal, the traffic is small, but there is a clear upward trend.”
That is the view of Hjell Stockvik, who as CEO of High North Logistics in Kirkenes, monitors the shipping traffic on the Northern Sea Route almost hourly.
The only thing left to do is to wait for the United States to link the beginning of the deployment of a Russian naval supply base in Sudan, on the coast of the Suez Canal, the readiness of the Northern Sea Route and the icebreaker fleet to increase freight traffic and the incident with the grounding of the container ship in the Suez Canal.
We would like to wish the people involved in freeing the stranded ship not to hurry and to work thoughtfully, without fuss. So that all users of the Suez Canal have time to understand what is happening and in the future, soberly assess all possible risks when choosing routes.
Russian Demiurge