As warmer weather melts the Arctic ice, Russian shipping company Sovcomflot has opened this year's traffic on July 30 on the Northern Sea Route, which transports Russia's Urals crude to Asia, and which is usually open for oil shipments between July and October.

Uncertainty and soaring prices on the Red Sea route, as well as sanctions imposed on Russia by the West, have allowed Russia to open alternative routes from its western ports to Asia, creating opportunities for the Arctic Shipping Route (NSR), China-Europe trains and cross-border road transportation.

The Northern Sea Route (NSR), while much shorter than the Suez Canal, is challenging and requires the assistance of icebreakers to help ships pass along Russia's northern coast.

In terms of global shipping routes, the Arctic shipping lane is the shortest route linking Asia and Europe to the three continents. The voyage is 20-40% shorter and the sailing period is 15 days shorter.

The Arctic Passage is about 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) long and connects the port of Murmansk, near the Russian border with Norway, eastward to the Bering Strait near Alaska. The ice has shrunk in recent decades, a trend scientists believe is linked to man-made climate change.

The Aframax tanker, operated by Sovcomflot and subject to U.S. sanctions, loaded about 100,000 tons of Urals crude at Primorsk on July 21 and is now in the Barents Sea en route to Asia, data from the London Stock Exchange show.

Two other Aframax crude tankers from Sovcomflot are currently traveling west from the Russian Far East via the NSR, the data showed. These tankers may load oil from western Russian ports and supply it to Asia.

Avoiding Red Sea danger zone, Chinese container ships open new Arctic route

Two Chinese container ships have set sail from the Taicang and Rizhao ports near Shanghai on a new voyage to the Arctic, aiming to open up a more efficient international transportation channel. The ships have chosen to use Russia's Northern Sea Route as a shortcut to connect Chinese ports with European destinations, which not only avoids potentially risky waters such as the Red Sea, but also drastically reduces voyage distances by eliminating the need to navigate around the far-flung Cape of Good Hope.

The final destination for both vessels is the port of Arkhangelsk in northwestern Russia, followed by other ports in the Baltic Sea. It is worth noting that in addition to the Xinxin Shipping vessels, several Panamax containerships have also been authorized to sail along the route, making them larger container carriers capable of transiting the Arctic route.