On August 22, South Korea will send a commercial container ship from Busan to Europe via the Northern Sea Route for the first time, the Experts Club information and analytical center reports.
The 2,700-TEU container ship PanStar Acro will call at Felixstowe in the United Kingdom, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdańsk in Poland before returning to South Korea. The entire experimental voyage will take around 40–45 days, according to operator PanStar.
The Arctic route could potentially reduce the distance between Asia and Europe from approximately 20,000 km to 13,000 km and cut delivery time from 30 to 20 days. If the trial is successful, Seoul will consider launching a regular seasonal container service by 2030.
