It is of great significance to global shipping, and the Arctic waterway has never attracted more and more attention and investment from the global shipping industry like today. From 2065438+August 2003, when COSCO Yongsheng made its maiden voyage to the Arctic Channel, in just five years, more than one multi-purpose ship of COSCO Shipping 10 successively crossed the Northeast Arctic Channel, thus achieving a short shipping time between China and Europe. Some Asian and European shipowners put bulk carriers, oil and gas carriers, tugboats, scientific research vessels and cruise ships into Arctic routes. From August, 2065438 to August, 2008, Maersk's three 600TEU container ships "Venta Maersk" took Vladivostok as the port of origin for the first time, and made a trial voyage to the Arctic waterway, directly reaching Europe, thus raising the relationship between shipping and the Arctic waterway to a new height. As early as 1 1 century, the navigation of the Arctic waterway attracted "crab eaters", and the Northeast Arctic waterway was proposed as a maritime trade route, but in the past few centuries, no navigator has ever crossed or sailed long distances. 1878-1879, Finnish explorer adolf Nodens kohl completed the navigation of the northeast waterway for the first time. With the intensification of global warming, the melting speed of the Arctic ice sheet is accelerating. In recent years, the "ice-free period" of some Arctic waters in summer has exceeded 30 days, and the navigation state has expanded. Furthermore, the voyage to European ports via the northeast Arctic waterway is shorter than the traditional Asia-Europe route via the Straits of Malacca and Suez Canal by more than 2,800 nautical miles, and the sailing time is shortened by 10 ~ 15 days. These undoubtedly bring coveted business opportunities to the global shipping industry. Although the Arctic waterway has the advantages of shortening the space-time distance between Asia and Europe, reducing the navigation cost and being free from pirates, relevant experts in the industry believe that the sea ice in the Arctic waterway is very thick, and even in the summer from July to September, the temperature in the Arctic Circle is between MINUS 3 C and MINUS 5 C. Under the climatic conditions of polar ocean, the challenge of security risk is still very severe. In August of 20 13, Yongsheng set sail from Dalian Port, passed the Bering Strait for the first time to reach the starting point of the northeast Arctic waterway, entered the Arctic Circle, and then passed the Chukchi Sea, the Delang Strait, the East Siberian Sea, the northern part of Novosibirsk Islands, the Laptev Sea, the Willy Kiiski Strait, the Kara Sea, the northern part of Xindi Island and the Barents Sea. To the west, sailing for 10 days. According to relevant data, from the icebreaking trip of Yongsheng in 20 13 to 20 17, COSCO Shipping * * * dispatched ships 10, completed four polar navigation missions of Northeast Arctic Channel 14 and 22 polar module transport voyages, and * * * transported 465,000 tons of goods. At the same time, Korean and Japanese shipowners either own or lease oil tankers, bulk carriers and LNG carriers of different tonnage, and travel between Asia and Europe through the East-West Arctic waterway. In addition to crude oil and refined oil, iron ore and liquefied natural gas have become common freight varieties on the Arctic waterway. According to the analysis of authoritative departments, the current navigation period of Arctic routes is July-165438+ 10, of which August -65438+ 10 is the best. Seize the navigation window every summer, accelerate the expansion of maritime trade, and become the * * * _ number of many Asian shipowners. A few years ago, the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries of Korea, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Resources and other relevant departments, formulated and promulgated the Arctic Comprehensive Policy Promotion Plan. The first task of the plan is to develop and utilize the Arctic route. Under the leadership of the national level, South Korean modern merchant ships and other shipowners have successively opened Arctic routes and continuously studied and improved them. The operation of the Arctic route is moving towards normalization and scale, and the Arctic channel is getting hotter and hotter, which can be seen from the hot order of special cold-resistant cargo ships in recent years. According to the data provided by Korean shipbuilding industry, since 20 13, Korean shipbuilding enterprises have received a large number of orders, most of which are from Norway and Siberia, and these countries expect to export LNG to Asia. It is understood that Norway's refined oil exported to Japan and South Korea's high-quality fuel exported to Europe have mainly completed the east-west transportation through the Arctic route. A spokesman for Asahi Kasei Chemical Company in Tokyo even declared: "The Arctic waterway has become an important transportation option connecting the Eurasian market." Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism previously announced the "Marine Basic Plan", saying that compared with the Suez River route, the Arctic route can shorten the distance between Japan and Europe by 40%. The statistics of Norwegian shipowners' Association also show that the freight volume passing through the Arctic waterway is increasing year by year. In 20 12 years, the freight volume passing through the arctic waterway was only1260,000 tons, and it is expected to increase to 50 million tons by 2020. "The new route can not only reduce shipping costs and carbon dioxide emissions, but also narrow the distance between Asian countries and western markets and promote the economic development of Asian coastal cities. At the same time, it will also alleviate the increasingly congested traffic conditions in the Straits of Malacca and the Suez Canal and avoid the rampant threat of Somali pirates. " Gary Li, a senior maritime analyst at IHS Energy Consulting, said so. As a country along the Arctic, Russia has long promoted the future prosperity of the Arctic waterway to a strategic height. President Putin bluntly said: "The Arctic waterway has the potential to become a golden route for international trade." Russia plans to make it the "Suez Canal" in the north. Accordingly, Russia seized the opportunity 50 years ahead of schedule, built and owned nearly 30 icebreakers, and set up 10 search and rescue centers along the Arctic to ensure transportation safety. With the rise of this wave of arctic waterway fever, the arctic route has changed from a single westbound route five years ago to an east-west two-way route. On July 20 17 18, COSCO Shipping "Tianyou" set off from Dafeng Port, Jiangsu Province, set foot on the Arctic Channel, and went straight to Sweden in northern Europe, which not only saved the shipping cost, shortened the delivery cycle of goods, but also avoided the threat of Somali pirates and Indian Ocean pirates. While "God Bless" sailed westward, its sister ship "Tianhui" sailed eastward to return home via the northeast channel of the Arctic. Two new 36,000-ton multi-purpose ships with ice class will be built to further meet the increasing navigation demand in the ice area and provide customers with more convenient and high-quality services. They belong to CCS ice grade B 1 ice grade, which is equivalent to Lloyd's Register of Shipping LR ice grade1a. Ice-class ships can pass through the ice navigation area with a thickness of 0.8 meters. It is understood that in 20 18, COSCO Shipping * * * continuously invested 8- 10 ships to join the Arctic waterway in summer. In the process of promoting the normalization, project and large-scale operation of Arctic routes, COSCO Shipping is making a major breakthrough. The navigation safety problem that can not be underestimated is called "the turning point between shipping and the Arctic" by the industry when Maersk container ships try to sail in the Arctic waterway. Maersk said cautiously: "The purpose of this experiment is to explore new container transportation routes and collect scientific data. At present, we do not regard the Arctic route as a substitute for normal routes. " Maersk believes that the ice in the Arctic waterway is very thick in Shanghai, and it is dangerous to sail on this waterway even in summer and even today. Even the largest container ships need to strengthen their hulls to break the ice in the sea, and most of them need special icebreakers to escort and guide them. The data show that the unique meteorological characteristics of the Arctic Ocean, such as low temperature, storm, magnetic storm and extreme day and night, have added additional difficulties to navigation safety, which are reflected in the safety of hull structure, ship stability, normal operation of engine room equipment, and the safety of people and goods on board. For ships sailing in the Arctic, the deck, seawater intake, deck pipes, vents, ventilation pipes of ballast tanks, hydroelectric power generation devices and other important parts are very easy to freeze. For ships, deck icing will directly lead to the increase of the ship's center of gravity, and the uncertainty of the ship's navigation process will be higher. If the ice on the deck is not removed in time, it will directly affect the stability of the ship in the storm, which may lead to capsizing accidents in serious cases. The seawater intake is frozen or blocked by crushed ice, which will cause the main and auxiliary engines of the ship to fail to work normally because they cannot be cooled, and the ventilation of the deck and ballast tank and the freezing of the snorkel will directly affect the normal use of these equipment; When a ship sails with no load, once the seawater in the ballast tank freezes, it may damage the hull structure. As far as the Arctic waterway is concerned, the density of floating ice in the Arctic waters is usually above 30%, so it is difficult for ships to keep sailing at full speed in the Arctic waters for a long time without professional icebreakers, and the lost speed will offset the advantage of short total voyage of the Arctic waterway to some extent. In addition to the ability to resist ice, navigable ships also need special training for their crew to resist cold weather, including the extreme day and night phenomenon unique to the Arctic waters, which cannot be ignored. Extreme daytime is easy to cause the visual fatigue of the crew, and extreme night has a very obvious impact on the hope of the ship in navigation. With more and more ships passing through the Arctic waterway, environmental problems are becoming increasingly prominent, and the risk of accidents such as ship collision will also increase, including the lack of adequate infrastructure to deal with oil spills in oil-polluted areas. Undoubtedly, the number of ships sailing in the Arctic waterway is increasing year by year, which not only greatly reduces the operating cost of shipping companies' Asia-Europe maritime trade, but also improves the performance of route transportation. At the same time, the new changes brought about by the normalization of the Arctic northeast waterway will inevitably divert the goods from the original waterway, reduce the status of traditional routes, and then change the world marine transportation pattern and map. However, at present, the safety risks in the process of normalization and large-scale operation of the Arctic waterway should not be underestimated. Source: navigation