IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v78y2015icp337-346.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relevance of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) for bulk shipping

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre, Cariou
  • Olivier, Faury

Abstract

Some scholars consider that today’s market conditions are in favor of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) rather than the Suez Canal Route (SCR). However, the number of bulk carriers using the NSR remains extremely limited, despite higher fuel prices since 2009 and subsequent significant fuel savings. In 2013, there were 53 transits via the Arctic, out of which 27 by oil tankers and 6 by bulk carriers. In this article we show that this result might be attributable to a factor, which is not considered in most studies: the spot freight rate to fuel ratio which governs ship owners’ decisions regarding the sailing speed. Due to a low ratio since 2011, the speed of vessels on the SCR is at its lowest level, and potential NSR fuel savings are too limited to provide a viable alternative. We further argue that, contrary to most studies, internalizing NSR environmental benefits marginally improves the attractiveness of the NSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre, Cariou & Olivier, Faury, 2015. "Relevance of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) for bulk shipping," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 337-346.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:78:y:2015:i:c:p:337-346
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2015.05.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856415001561
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2015.05.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julienne Stroeve & Mark Serreze & Marika Holland & Jennifer Kay & James Malanik & Andrew Barrett, 2012. "The Arctic’s rapidly shrinking sea ice cover: a research synthesis," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 1005-1027, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rashid, Khalid & Safdarnejad, Seyed Mostafa & Ellingwood, Kevin & Powell, Kody M., 2019. "Techno-economic evaluation of different hybridization schemes for a solar thermal/gas power plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 91-106.
    2. Zhang, Chi & Zhang, Di & Zhang, Mingyang & Lang, Xiao & Mao, Wengang, 2020. "An integrated risk assessment model for safe Arctic navigation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 101-114.
    3. Lin, Dung-Ying & Chang, Yu-Ting, 2018. "Ship routing and freight assignment problem for liner shipping: Application to the Northern Sea Route planning problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 47-70.
    4. Christian Finnsgård & Joakim Kalantari & Zeeshan Raza & Violeta Roso & Johan Woxenius, 2018. "Swedish shippers’ strategies for coping with slow-steaming in deep sea container shipping," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-24, December.
    5. Zeng, Qingcheng & Lu, Tingyu & Lin, Kun-Chin & Yuen, Kum Fai & Li, Kevin X., 2020. "The competitiveness of Arctic shipping over Suez Canal and China-Europe railway," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 34-43.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Diebold, Francis X. & Rudebusch, Glenn D., 2023. "Climate models underestimate the sensitivity of Arctic sea ice to carbon emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Diebold, Francis X. & Rudebusch, Glenn D., 2022. "Probability assessments of an ice-free Arctic: Comparing statistical and climate model projections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 520-534.
    3. Gadamus, Lily & Raymond-Yakoubian, Julie & Ashenfelter, Roy & Ahmasuk, Austin & Metcalf, Vera & Noongwook, George, 2015. "Building an indigenous evidence-base for tribally-led habitat conservation policies," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 116-124.
    4. Larissa Pizzolato & Stephen Howell & Chris Derksen & Jackie Dawson & Luke Copland, 2014. "Changing sea ice conditions and marine transportation activity in Canadian Arctic waters between 1990 and 2012," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 123(2), pages 161-173, March.
    5. Diebold, Francis X. & Rudebusch, Glenn D. & Göbel, Maximilian & Goulet Coulombe, Philippe & Zhang, Boyuan, 2023. "When will Arctic sea ice disappear? Projections of area, extent, thickness, and volume," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(2).
    6. Elizabeth Kopits & Alex L. Marten & Ann Wolverton, 2013. "Moving Forward with Incorporating "Catastrophic" Climate Change into Policy Analysis," NCEE Working Paper Series 201301, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Jan 2013.
    7. Diebold, Francis X. & Rudebusch, Glenn D. & Göbel, Maximilian & Goulet Coulombe, Philippe & Zhang, Boyuan, 2024. "Reprint of: When will Arctic sea ice disappear? Projections of area, extent, thickness, and volume," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 239(1).
    8. Eddy Bekkers & Joseph F. Francois & Hugo Rojas†Romagosa, 2018. "Melting Ice Caps and the Economic Impact of Opening the Northern Sea Route," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(610), pages 1095-1127, May.
    9. Diebold, Francis X. & Göbel, Maximilian & Goulet Coulombe, Philippe & Rudebusch, Glenn D. & Zhang, Boyuan, 2021. "Optimal combination of Arctic sea ice extent measures: A dynamic factor modeling approach," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1509-1519.
    10. Nong, Duy & Warziniack, Travis & Countryman, Amanda M. & Grey-Avis, Erin, 2017. "Effects of a Melting Arctic on Risk of Invasive Species Spread," Conference papers 332828, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    11. Hannah M. Director & Adrian E. Raftery, 2022. "Contour models for physical boundaries enclosing star‐shaped and approximately star‐shaped polygons," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1688-1720, November.
    12. Clark, Dylan G. & Ford, James D. & Pearce, Tristan & Berrang-Ford, Lea, 2016. "Vulnerability to unintentional injuries associated with land-use activities and search and rescue in Nunavut, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 18-26.
    13. Theocharis, Dimitrios & Rodrigues, Vasco Sanchez & Pettit, Stephen & Haider, Jane, 2019. "Feasibility of the Northern Sea Route: The role of distance, fuel prices, ice breaking fees and ship size for the product tanker market," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 111-135.
    14. Matto Mildenberger & Peter Howe & Erick Lachapelle & Leah Stokes & Jennifer Marlon & Timothy Gravelle, 2016. "The Distribution of Climate Change Public Opinion in Canada," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-14, August.
    15. Francis X. Diebold & Glenn D. Rudebusch, 2019. "Probability Assessments of an Ice-Free Arctic: Comparing Statistical and Climate Model Projections," PIER Working Paper Archive 19-021, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    16. Liu, ChengCheng & Lian, Feng & Yang, Zhongzhen, 2021. "Comparing the minimal costs of Arctic container shipping between China and Europe: A network schemes perspective," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    17. Tuomas Kiiski & Tomi Solakivi & Juuso Töyli & Lauri Ojala, 2018. "Long-term dynamics of shipping and icebreaker capacity along the Northern Sea Route," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(3), pages 375-399, September.
    18. Andrew J. Newman & Andrew J. Monaghan & Martyn P. Clark & Kyoko Ikeda & Lulin Xue & Ethan D. Gutmann & Jeffrey R. Arnold, 2021. "Hydroclimatic changes in Alaska portrayed by a high-resolution regional climate simulation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 1-21, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:78:y:2015:i:c:p:337-346. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.