Arctic shipping: A systematic literature review of comparative studies

Abstract

Following the gradual decline of Arctic sea ice, shipping using Arctic routes increased from 2010. This led to an upsurge in the number of studies investigating the potential of Arctic maritime routes. A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the extant literature from 1980 to 2017 on comparative studies between Arctic and traditional routes. This review also aimed to provide an initial understanding on route choice decision-making factors and to contribute to the literature by providing suggestions for future research and methodological considerations. The competitiveness of Arctic routes is evaluated from both economic and environmental perspectives. Research themes and methodological characteristics are analysed in order to establish an evidence base in Arctic shipping literature. It is identified that analytical research methods and transport cost models are mainly employed. The results indicate that although Arctic routes can be more cost-effective and energy efficient compared to traditional ones, especially in the long-term, they can mainly serve as seasonal alternatives for bulk and specialised shipping in the short-term.

Feasibility of the Northern Sea Route: The role of distance, fuel prices, ice breaking fees and ship size for the product tanker market

“…LNG) rather than liner shipping in the short to medium-term. The studies reporting on the feasibility of Arctic routes also confirm that they are currently more competitive for single or round voyages and for bulk shipping, whilst their competitiveness increases for year-round liner operations only in the long-term (Theocharis et al, 2018).…”

“…The main factors examined are distance, ship size, fuel types and prices, and ice breaking fees. Whilst ship sizes, distances, fuel prices and ice breaking fees have been widely explored in the literature concerning liner operations on NSR (Theocharis et al, 2018), there is a limited understanding as to how they affect tanker operations (Zhang et al, 2016). Further, this is the first study to investigate the impact of the IMO Sulphur 2020 limit, and alternative operational modes concerning fuel types and technologies in the context of Arctic shipping.…”

“…Whilst the literature on comparative studies of Arctic routes has increased considerably since 2011, so has the difficulty of identifying valid parameters regarding certain cost and operational factors (Lasserre, 2014(Lasserre, , 2015Meng et al, 2016;Theocharis et al, 2018). Minimal shipping activity on Arctic waters regarding full transits coupled with the complexity of Arctic maritime operations in harsh climate and sea ice, and the relatively small ice class fleet globally (Yumashev et al, 2017;Solakivi et al, 2017Solakivi et al, , 2018Tseng and Cullinane, 2018), increase the variability of estimates and underline the difficulty of obtaining a global view on Arctic shipping economics.…”

“…Analysis of Arctic shipping feasibility has increased considerably since 2011 with liner shipping being the most studied transport system, and the NSR, the most studied route in the literature (Lasserre, 2014(Lasserre, , 2015Meng et al, 2016;Theocharis et al, 2018). On the other hand, less attention has been paid to bulk shipping, and more specifically on oil tanker segments (Song and Zhang, 2013;Zhang et al, 2016;Faury and Cariou, 2016).…”

The Northern Sea Route: Long-Term Impact on the Economic Development

“…Although at this stage, the NSR is not regarded for the purposes of global logistics as the primary transit route for the foreign vessels from Europe to Asia, the growth potential for the NSR in this regard owing to the aforementioned climatic change cannot be discarded. Thus, in the future, the commercial use of the NSR can become more profitable and energy efficient if compared to the other international transit corridors as it is discussed in some papers (i.e., Lasserre (2014), Theocharis et al (2018), Wang, Zhang, and Meng (2018)). Additionally, skimming on the fuel costs when using the NSR during the summertime navigation is already significant, 3-5% i.e.…”