Rosatom State Corporation will send its first Arctic containership to the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 2025.
As Alexander Bryntsev, Director for Shipbuilding and Transit Infrastructure at Rusatom Cargo, confirmed, the company is planning to build a pilot series of containerships with a capacity of 6,000 TEU with high ice class.
The company now expects to announce a tender for the design of new Arctic container vessels by the end of 2021.
Commenting on the plan, Ekaterina Lyakhova, Rosatom’s director for economics and investment, said that the preliminary cost of the vessels has not yet been determined, as it will depend on the requirements that will be incorporated into the design.
Furthermore, in July, Rosatom and DP World signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop and design pilot containerships as part of the Northern Marine Transit Corridor (SMTC) project.
The project aspires to create a container line and hub ports for the transit of cargo along the Northern Sea Route.