Seaborne traffic on Northern Sea Route as of Dec 17 exceeds 33.5 million tonnes
The volume is expected to exceed by the year-end results 34 million tonnes
The volume of seaborne traffic on the Northern Sea Route (the NSR, Sevmorput), as of December 17, 2021 reached more than 33.5 million tonnes, the Rosatom said. The figures are based on statistics of cargo traffic provided by the Marine Operations Headquarters, Atomflot (part of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom) and Administration of the Northern Sea Route, subordinate to Russian Transport Ministry’s Rosmorrechflot.
“We expect that in 2021 the cargo traffic on the Northern Sea Route will exceed 34 million tonnes,” said Maxim Kulinko, Deputy Director, Northern Sea Route Directorate of Rosatom State Corporation.
He noted that cargo transit along the NSR reached more than 2 million tonnes (in 2020 – about 1.3 million tonnes).
In 2020, cargo volume transported on the NSR amounted to 32.97 million tonnes. In 2016, cargo traffic on the shipping lane reached 7.5 million tonnes, for the first time exceeding the volume achieved in the USSR: in 1987 seaborne traffic on the NSR was 6.5 million tonnes.
The types of cargo shipped on the route were intended primarily for oil and gas investment projects: crude oil and oil products - 7.7 million tonnes, LNG and gas condensate - 19.6 million tonnes. The dry bulk carriers transported 221 500 tonnes of coal, 47 700 tonnes of ore concentrate. More than 4 million tonnes accounted for other types of cargoes.
In accordance with the summary of the Development of the Northern Sea Route Federal Project, the target to be achieved by the end of 2021 is 32 million tonnes.
The supervisor of the federal project "Northern Sea Route" is Rosatom. In 2018, the authorities approved the federal law, giving Rosatom Corporation powers in the development and operation of the NSR. The management of the Northern Sea Route is based on the principle of "two keys" - the Ministry of Transport of Russia is responsible for laws and regulation, and the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom is responsible for commercial and economic activity.
The goal of the federal project "Development of the Northern Sea Route" is to create an infrastructure to increase cargo traffic to 80 million tonnes in 2024 and 110 million tonnes by 2030, as well as to increase the total capacity of seaports to 110 and 115 million tonnes, respectively.
It is included in the Comprehensive Plan for the Modernization and Expansion of the Main Infrastructure for the period until to 2024, developed in accordance with the Decree of the President of Russia dated May 7, 2018 No. 204 "On National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Development of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2024".
The Rosatom’s head Alexei Likhachev speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum noted that the total volume of cargo transportation on the Big Northern Sea Route (from Murmansk to Vladivostok) will reach 250 million tonnes per year after 2035.
