ITJ 49-52/2024
Dear readers,
A rather eventful logistics year is slowly coming to an end, and it doesn’t look like the next one will be less busy – not even in regions that used to be more on the margins of global supply chains. The most recent example is the northern polar region, where a bearded old man can currently handle the majority of his transport orders with an airborne sleigh.
“Ho, ho, ho” he might say, should Russia and China put into practice their intention, expressed on 25 November, to use the Northern Sea Route commercially. Climate and political changes might make it possible. Rosatom director General Alexey Likhachev and China’s transport minister Liu Wei have ascertained “considerable potential” for the 5,600 km route between the Kara and Barents Seas.
While Russia considers developing its Arctic region to be a “strategic national priority”, China wants to explore yet another corridor of its New Silk Road.
A 12,800 km sea voyage from Shanghai to Rotterdam could be 10-15 days faster than the 21,000 km route through the Red Sea, which remains unsafe. And what do the Europeans want?
Let’s leave the Arctic alone for the Christmas season, and rather see to it that the polar bears’ world can be preserved. The transport and logistics industry is also called upon to do its bit for the ongoing protection of the environment – and the ITJ will continue to report on it.
Enjoy your read and –
Merry Christmas!
Andreas Haug
Editor-in-chief