MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has declared that it will not use the Northern Sea Route and has called on the “entire shipping industry” to adopt that stance.
“The situation in the Red Sea has rendered transit unsafe for our seafarers, and a drought led to restrictions on daily Panama Canal transits. This has increased the rhetoric around the viability of the Northern Sea Route to transit the Arctic, with its proponents claiming shorter distances and its fuel savings. Let me be clear, it comes with significant risks… there is also no place on Earth quite like the Arctic, which has enduringly posed numerous safety and operational challenges,” said Bud Darr, executive vice president, maritime policy and government affairs at MSC Group.
Among the challenges cited are the severe difficulties to navigation such as the presence of ice, weather conditions, insufficient chart information, and limited infrastructure. There is also little search and rescue or pollution responses. MSC also argues that Arctic communities depend on shipping and that the global industry should not burden essential traffic with unnecessary transits.
“Additionally, our fleet and network can efficiently transport our customers’ cargoes worldwide without transiting the Arctic. At MSC, we remain fully committed to avoiding trade routes in fragile marine ecosystems and vulnerable environments, such as the Arctic. Cutting through melting ice to open a new trade route is incompatible with this commitment,” MSC said in a statement.
