Chinese state-owned liner Cosco is pressing forward with plans to boost shipments along the Arctic route, offering the Asian giant another string to its trade and logistics bow, according to Alaska Dispatch News.

 Travelling via the Arctic route means vessels can slash the time it takes to go from Asia to Europe and vice versa. Utilising the Arctic routes is not without risk, however.

 There have been various warnings regarding how Arctic shipping regulations are riddled with gaps, and how, if the route is used en masse, emissions in the region would soar 600% by 2025.

 Even more shockingly, melting ice in the Arctic provides free roaming ‘alien’ radical species with the opportunity to hitchhike across to new continents and infect ecosystems. 

 Cosco representatives spoke in Finland recently after the arrival in Sweden of the Cosco Yong Sheng vessel, which departed from the Chinese port of Dalian.

 Yong Sheng was the first Chinese merchant ship to transit the Arctic through the Northern Sea Route and will soon return by the same route. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also backed China to utilise the Arctic route. China’s interest in the region can be seen as a wider strategy of expansion and exploration in the global arena.

 The land of the world’s second-largest economy has already begun plans to drill a hugely ambitious canal through Nicaragua to rival the Panama Canal by 2020, and pressed on with its plans to create tight linkages throughout Asia via its Maritime Silk Road initiative.

 China’s increasing focus on maritime activity is evidence of Beijing’s ambition to play a primary role in the facilitation of world trade.
(Source : www.porttechnology.org)