Before the surface of Earth was mapped, European traders longed for a Northwest Passage which would enable sea trade with east Asia without the long, dangerous voyage around Africa. Unfortunately, the Northwest Passage was mythical and didn’t exist. Men died in the Arctic trying to find it.
Today’s choke-points in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz makes a Northwest Passage even more attractive.
Now, due to climate change, arctic sea ice is melting in summer. The Northwest Passage has appeared for real.
China Is Opening the First Regular Cargo Route Through the Arctic
Sending containerships through northern passage now makes financial sense because of high oil prices and climate change
By Sune Engel Rasmussen in London and Stu Woo in Singapore, Aug. 14, 2026
China Is Opening the First Regular Cargo Route Through the Arctic
Sending containerships through northern passage now makes financial sense because of high oil prices and climate change
By Sune Engel Rasmussen in London and Stu Woo in Singapore, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 14, 2026
…
A Chinese company on Saturday is starting the first regular cargo service to Europe through Arctic waters, seeking to reap the benefits of quicker travel time and less fuel use.
The shipper Sea Legend will dispatch the Dubai Tower from Ningbo, China, to Felixstowe in the U.K. on what it calls the Arctic Express, following a route along Russia’s north coast. The voyage by the vessel, which is capable of carrying 1,740 20-foot containers, is the biggest commercial step in the Arctic since a Maersk containership first completed the route in 2018.
Global warming is a big factor behind the new route, but it is not the only one. Nearly half the Arctic region’s summer ice—an area four times the size of Texas—has melted over five decades, clearing a fairly reliable path in the summer months. Meanwhile, high oil prices and attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea have made the traditional routes costlier and more dangerous…
Beyond that, Beijing has ambitions to play a role in the Arctic’s future, lending a geopolitical dimension to the Chinese company’s shipping route…
Saving fuel by shortening the journey doesn’t automatically make a route profitable. Insurance premiums for the Arctic are 40% higher than the Cape of Good Hope route…
at current oil prices of around $90, the cost of shipping liquid bulk such as liquefied natural gas could drop roughly 33% compared with the Cape of Good Hope route, while dry bulk goods such as cereals would cost about 8% less. …
Western companies that want to follow in Sea Legend’s path have to navigate treacherous politics. Russia claims sovereignty over the entire Northern Sea Route and permits for ship traffic are issued by its state-controlled nuclear operator, Rosatom…
An alternative Arctic route, the Northwest Passage that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the Canadian Arctic, is less passable because it is dominated by narrow waterways where ice gets bunched up…
Any polar venture contributes to China’s quest to master Arctic travel. The country also has three icebreakers and a support vessel currently on a months-long scientific expedition north of Greenland. Scientific and commercial voyages can yield data about natural resources awaiting below melting ice caps and information for positioning nuclear-armed submarines. [end quote]
There’s a lot more to this story than the price of natural gas.
China doesn’t have a border on the Arctic Ocean but they claim to be “near arctic” (which is nonsense since China is closer to the equator than the arctic). China has a friendship pact with Russia and a yen (or should I say “yuan”) to become THE dominant world superpower of the 21st century.
Anyone with a map can see that nuclear submarines armed with hypersonic missiles within a whisper of Alaska and Canada and minutes from the continental U.S. can hide in the parts of the Arctic Ocean which will be free of sea ice in the summer.
The trade aspects are Macroeconomic. But the real aspects are geopolitical and can impact U.S. superpower status. NATO and NORAD are updating their Arctic defense posture in response. Lots of details available from Gemini.
History is being made in real time.
Wendy
