Transit cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 2023 reached 2.1 million tons, a record number in the entire history of the route. Vladimir Panov, Rosatom's special representative for Arctic development, told Interfax that the main type of cargo was oil.
The boundaries of the NSR are defined by the Code of Merchant Shipping: from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the west to Cape Dezhnev in Chukotka. There are three types of cargo traffic on the NSR. The first one includes shipment from the Gulf of Ob and the Yenisei Bay. The second one includes coastal cargo needed to supply investment projects in the Arctic, as well as northern delivery. The third type of cargo is transit, which includes ships loading and unloading cargo at ports outside the NSR.
The total volume of cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route in 2022 amounted to 34 million tons. As Panov noted, in January-October 2023, a total of 31.4 million tons of cargo were transported along the NSR, 6% more than in the same period last year.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
