By Leo Ryan, AJOTBeluga Shipping, Germany’s project cargo specialist, drew worldwide attention in the summer of 2009 by becoming the first western enterprise to have successfully transited the entire Northern Sea Route (NSR) between Asia and Europe. Two new ice-strengthened heavy-lift vessels, the Beluga Fraternity and the Beluga Foresight, part of a convoy escorted by a Russian ice-breaker, shaved approximately 4,000 nautical miles off a total journey between Ulsan, Korea and Rotterdam. The cost savings were estimated at 300,000 euros for each vessel. Last summer, the carrier followed this initial experience by carrying out several partial NSR transits, transporting power plant components from Europe to Siberia. In an interview with AJOT, Niels Stolberg, President and CEO of Beluga Shipping GmbH, spoke to the immediate future plans and explained how transits via the NSR, under specific conditions, can be economically feasible despite the transit charges imposed by Russia’s Northern Sea Route Administration and especially the very high fees for Russian ice-breaker services. “The economic advantage of sailing the Northern Sea Route instead of taking the long way round south through the Suez Canal,” Stolberg said, “depends on two major facts: first, the location of the ports of loading and discharging which determine the amount of nautical miles and, in effect, voyage costs saved by using the Arctic shortcut between Europe and Asia; and secondly, the cooperation with the client behind the project.” For Beluga Shipping, Stolberg went on, commercial sailings along the NSR over the past two years have proven to be economically feasible “and will certainly remain such in the future because, within the charterers’ agreement we include (a clause) that the costs for the regulatory ice-breaker assistance are covered by the customer. So, we do achieve a win-win situation for everybody involved.” By paying for the ice-breaker assistance, Stolberg pointed out, a shipper can get the cargo delivered straight to a destination, for instance, in Siberia which had not been accessible by sea before and also entailed rail or barge transportation. “Regarding the full Northern Sea Route transit we first made happen in 2009, we could save in total about US$ 600,000 with our two-vessel transit compared with the traditional route.” NSR Project Cargo Agenda for 2011 Commenting on future plans for 2011 and beyond, Stolberg declared: “It is our intention and, indeed, part of our commercial strategy, to make use of the temporarily accessible Northern Sea Route during the summer navigation time as regularly as possible in the coming years. “Subject to the official approval of the Northern Sea Route Administration, we will probably deliver project cargo again this summer. “From a commercial perspective and, not least taking into account that the using the Arctic Shortcut saves hundreds of tons of CO2 emissions by reducing bunker consumption compared to the Suez Canal route, we do, of course, hope that the economically most-attractive Northern Sea Route becomes an area of growing traffic opportunities.” Stolberg stressed that the rising project and heavy-lift market in Siberia presently offers great business prospects for shipping companies and the regional economies. He indicated that this February Beluga Shipping will be taking part in extensive planning and negotiations in Russia to map out commercial opportunities and projects for 2011 in particular, “We expect to be able to comment further on details by the end of first quarter 2011.”