New container ship route to Europe halves transit time

The China-Europe Arctic container express route officially entered regular weekly operations on Saturday, opening a faster, more efficient and resilient northbound logistics corridor between China and Europe.

The container ship  Dubai Tower departed from Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in East China's Zhejiang province, announcing the start of the route's regular seasonal service, which takes about 20 days, halving the transit time of traditional routes to Europe.

Fang Yi, CEO of the Sea Legend Line, which operates the route, told China Daily that after leaving China, the vessel would call at key ports in Northern Europe and the Baltic region, including Felixstowe in the United Kingdom, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Hamburg in Germany and Gdynia in Poland.

The route thus establishes a logistics network linking China's coastal manufacturing hubs directly with major European ports.

The Sea Legend Line has already drawn up a liner schedule for this year's navigation season, with more than eight voyages planned from mid-August through late September or early October.

Such a schedule would have been difficult to imagine just a year ago.

On Sept 22, 2025, the container ship  Istanbul Bridge departed from Ningbo-Zhoushan Port and finished the first full trial.

The route follows the Northeast Passage along the Arctic coast, connecting the Bering Strait with the Barents Sea. At about 5,000 kilometers, it is the shortest maritime route between Northeast Asia and Western Europe.

For decades, maritime trade between Asia and Europe went along southern routes through the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

"The trial took 20 days from China to Europe, compared with 40 days via the Suez Canal and 50 days traveling around the Cape of Good Hope. The Arctic route also avoids congestion and potential geopolitical disruptions," Fang said.

However, it only has a short summer navigation window, as ice and weather are difficult to predict.

Some industry insiders said that the Arctic route, which is navigable from late July to October, remains constrained by ice conditions, and therefore cannot replace the traditional routes soon.

Li Xiaobin, chief operating officer of Sea Legend Line, said that with advances in icebreaking and energy propulsion technologies, the navigation period could potentially be extended to eight to 10 months in the next three to five years.

In addition, the Arctic's cold environment functions as a natural cold chain, with temperatures along the route generally ranging from minus 3 C to 10 C, which is suitable for temperature-sensitive cargo such as energy-storage cabinets and power batteries.

Products loaded for Saturday's voyage were of this type, with cargo mainly sourced from manufacturing clusters in the Yangtze River Delta, including Ningbo and Yiwu in Zhejiang province, and tailored to meet peak-season delivery demand in European markets.

After the trial, several partner ports in Europe expressed strong interest in regular operations on the route.