Container shipping in the Arctic is news to the industry. Ice and harsh conditions do not go well with time keeping and schedule integrity. But there is experience available of subzero temperatures and ice conditions. On the St. Lawrence Seaway, temperatures may fall to minus 30 degrees Celsius in just a few hours as you approach the coastline. In this issue, we bring you an interview with the people who have firsthand experience.
Crossing the Arctic via the North East passage can be done today when the ice conditions are moderate. With global warming, the ice cap is receding, and providing time windows with moderate ice or virtually ice-free conditions. If a container ship could take this route, it would knock several thousand nautical miles off a voyage from Yokohama to Rotterdam. That would save both fuel and time. But is it possible? DNV has conducted a risk assessment of such a venture in its ARCON project. We report on some of the highlights of this project, along with risks and opportunities in this issue. The findings will become public in June.
Jan Tiedemann of AXS-Alphaliner looks at the possible consequences of the new bigger ships entering the market. Older and smaller ships will be replaced by newer and bigger ones in ports around the world. Cascading will be the order of the day in the years to come.
We are very pleased to bring you the views of Gerry Wang, the CEO of Seaspan Corp, in this issue. What is the philosophy of one of the leading container ship owners? What has made the rapid and profitable growth possible in less than a decade?
This issue is released during Nor-Shipping, the major shipping exhibition in Scandinavia. I’m looking forward to meeting some of you there.
Happy reading!
Knut A. Døhlie
Business Director
Container Ships
Date: 2009-06-23