Freight traffic on Northern Sea Route in 2020 hits the 32-millionth tonne mark, Atomflot says

The volume of cargo traffic on the Northern Sea Route (Sevmorput/NSR), as of December 22, 2020, has reached 32 million tonnes (vs 31.5 million tonnes by 2019 year-end results), Atomflot press office said.

So, the 2020 target volume numbers of the Northern Sea Route Federal Project (29 million tonnes) has been achieved ahead of schedule, Leonid Irlitsa, First Deputy General Director, Shipping Director of FSUE Atomflot said.

“The Yamal LNG project implementation and the construction of the Arctic LNG 2 Project on the Gydan Peninsula largely contributed to the volume growth,” Atomflot official added.
 
As of today nuclear icebreakers have assisted and escorted 479 vessels with a total gross tonnage of 32.41 million tonnes (510 operations / 30.28 MT tonnage in 2019).

Ledonid Irlitsa also noted that the launching of the automated control system of the NSR Marine Operations Headquarters became a landmark event for Atomflot in 2020.

“Several shipping companies have become users of Atomflot’s new service (information and navigation support). During the summer-autumn shipping season, we completed eleven escorts without icebreaker support. This is a good indicator that allows us to predict further growth of transit voyages in the water area of ​​the Northern Sea Route in 2021,” Mr. Irlitsa said.
 
The Northern Sea Route Administration provided the data on cargo transportation in the NSR basin.