China and Russia are planning a new container fleet for the Arctic

China and Russia are pressing ahead with their plans for regular container shipping via the Northern Sea Route. The Chinese shipping company NewNew Shipping Line and the Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom are developing up to five large Arc7-class ice-class container ships. In the long term, they should also be able to sail the route outside the short summer season.

At the Eastern Economic Forum 2026 in early September, Rosatom confirmed that the development of the new vessels is continuing in collaboration with NewNew Shipping. The design for the Arctic container ship class had already been approved by Rosatom in the spring.

The planned vessels are to be 255 metres long and 35 metres wide and capable of carrying more than 4,800 standard containers (TEU). Their Arc7 ice class is designed to enable them to navigate through first-year sea ice up to 1.7 metres thick independently. In more challenging ice conditions, Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers could provide assistance. The width of the vessels has been tailored to the navigation channels of the modern Russian Project 22220 icebreakers.

Rosatom and NewNew Shipping have been working since 2024 to establish a regular container service between China and Russia via the Arctic. The five new vessels would represent an important step towards moving from seasonal traffic to longer-term or, ultimately, year-round use of the Northern Sea Route.

However, the project is still in the planning phase. According to the information published so far, construction of the five Arc7 container ships has not yet begun, nor has a shipyard been definitively announced.

Nevertheless, the project demonstrates the extent to which China and Russia wish to expand their cooperation in the Arctic. Individual summer container voyages could, in future, develop into a regular Arctic shipping link between Asia and Russia.

Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal