South Korea was set on Saturday to send its first trial container ship through the Arctic, as the Middle East war rattles global shipping, while environmental groups warned the route could accelerate polar ice melt.

The Middle East conflict has roiled global shipping, sending governments and shipping firms scrambling to seek alternative routes.

Sailing from Busan New Port, the container ship – the PanStar Acro – will sail to Europe via the Arctic, testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice can be commercially viable.

"The ship will depart at 8pm today unless there are unforeseen circumstances, such as bad weather," an oceans ministry official said on Saturday.

The ship will leave for Felixstowe in Britain, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdansk in Poland before returning, with the voyage expected to take about 45 days, according to the ministry.

The voyage follows that of the Chinese container ship Dubai Tower, which left the eastern port city of Ningbo for Europe this month, heading north through the Bering Strait before turning west along Russia's Arctic coast.

The usual maritime route between Asia and Europe runs through the Suez Canal, but travelling through the Arctic can cut the journey by around 7,000 kilometres and about 10 days, according to the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

South Korea's Vice Oceans Minister Nam Jae-hon said the Arctic route was "bound to become an alternative" to Middle Eastern shipping lanes – as geopolitical risks and technological advances make it increasingly competitive.

Marc Lanteigne, a political science professor at the Arctic University of Norway, said the voyage – coming soon after China's "Dubai Tower" began its own Arctic journey – showed the Northern Sea Route was becoming normalised as a "secondary maritime transit corridor". (AFP)




Edited by Tony Sabine