New shipping operator for Russian Arctic

The Russian government has said it will invest the equivalent of US$200M in 2021-25 to develop Arctic transport infrastructure. RusAtom Cargo (RAC) will oversee the ‘Northern Sea Transport Corridor’ (NSTC), with a view to setting up a regular container shuttle service between Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in early 2026.

MSC has declared that it “will not explore or use the Northern Sea Route (NSR) between Europe and Asia for container shipping”.