China’s NewNew Shipping Line and Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom are developing a project for five large ice-class container ships that will enable year-round commercial transport along the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
Sea-news.az reports this, citing information from Seanews.az.
According to the report, the vessels, which will belong to the Arc7 ice class, have been designed by Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation.
The ships are planned to have a length of 255 meters and a width of 35 meters. Each is reported to have the capacity to carry more than 4,800 TEUs of containers.
The container ships will be equipped with a 46 MW diesel-electric power plant. This system will enable the vessels to independently break through one-year-old ice up to 1.7 meters thick.
The width of the ships has been tailored to the dimensions of the channels opened by nuclear icebreakers built under Russia’s Project 22220. This will allow the container ships to utilize the existing icebreaker escort system during periods of severe ice conditions.
Work on the project has reportedly been ongoing since 2024. However, construction of the vessels has not yet begun.
The parties had previously planned to commission the first ship no later than 2027. Currently, some uncertainty remains regarding the project’s implementation schedule.
In addition, NewNew Shipping Line is separately forming a fleet consisting of six container ships with a capacity of 4,800 TEUs each.
According to the report, four of these vessels are scheduled to begin service on the China–St. Petersburg route in October 2026, while the other two are slated to begin operations in June 2027.
The company aims to transport 1.2 million tons of cargo via the Northern Sea Route during the 2027 summer navigation season.
The commissioning of the new Arc7 ice-class container ships could be of vital importance for ensuring that commercial shipping along the NSR is not limited solely to the short summer navigation season, but can also continue through the autumn and winter months.
Thus, the realization of this project could mark a significant step toward making the Arctic route available for year-round commercial navigation.
