Norilsk Nickel plans to increase cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from 1.6 million tons to 3 million tons per year by 2028-2030, First Vice President of the company Nikolay Utkin said.
The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route, the main maritime communication in the Russian Arctic. It runs along the northern shores of Russia along the seas of the Arctic Ocean. The NSR connects the European and Far Eastern ports of Russia with navigable Siberian rivers into a single transport system. The length of this route is 5.6 thousand km from the Kara Gate Strait to Providence Bay.
"We confidently associate the prospects for the development of the Arctic with an increased volume of traffic along the Northern Sea Route. We plan to increase the current 1.6 million tons that we carry along the Northern Sea Route to 3 million tons. Accordingly, we will reach these figures already in 2028-2030, based on current conditions," Utkin said, speaking at the international symposium "Creating the Future" at the national centre "Russia".
The first vice president of Norilsk Nickel said that the company has its own fleet of six ice-class vessels and has invested more than 1 billion rubles in its modernization. It also owns a shipping subsidiary, the Yenisei River Shipping Company.
In addition, the company has its own port facilities in Dudinka in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, which are capable of receiving both sea and river class vessels. It is planned to invest in the development of transport infrastructure in the territories of its presence, tass.ru reports.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished
