China has announced a new shipping route through the Arctic Ocean, which could ease the way for global trade amid the Middle East crisis that has paralysed critical waterways, including the Bab al-Mandeb on the edge of the Red Sea. Shipping companies have become increasingly interested in alternative trade routes through the Arctic in recent years as conflicts, such as the US war on Iran, restrict vital routes like the Red Sea and the Gulf. One answer may be China’s new “Ice Silk Road”, which begins at Ningbo on China’s east coast, cuts through the Arctic Circle by running along Russia’s Northern Sea Route and then heads south in the North Sea, terminating at Felixstowe in eastern England.
In recent months, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the key transit point to the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, has become a no-go route for many ships as the Iran-backed Houthis target shipping linked to Saudi Arabia. That has disrupted traffic heading to and from the Suez Canal, the vital waterway connecting West Asia to Europe. So could China’s new shipping route be a sustainable alternative and what would it mean for the balance of power in international trade?
Last week, the Chinese container shipping company, Sea Legend, which specialises in international trade with North Africa and Turkiye, formally announced the new route it has named the “Ice Silk Road” after China’s historic Silk Road route with Europe. The company carried out a test voyage along the route last October. According to a report then by China’s Xinhua news agency, the voyage took 20 days, offering an advantage over other routes through the Suez Canal, which take about 40 days; or around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa which takes around 50 days.
Following the test run, Li Xiaobin, Sea Legend’s chief operating officer said the new route is particularly suitable for heat-sensitive and time-critical cargo, such as lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products (which convert light into electricity using semiconductors) because of the low temperatures and relatively short distance. Climate change has already caused significant melting of ice in the Arctic. While it poses new threats around the world, such as flooding and natural disasters, it has opened up new potential shipping routes.
According to a July study published by researchers at Southampton University in the UK, between 2024 and 2025, “Arctic sea ice extent during the winter peak phase, from February to March, fell by 5.8 percent”, the “largest” drop on record. However, there are a number of obstacles to establishing new freely available shipping routes there. While China’s new Arctic sea route could cut travel time from China to Europe in half, it is still only accessible during the warmer summer months of the northern hemisphere when there is less ice.
The route works as a seasonal supplement to other key shipping routes, Dylan Loh, an associate professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs programme at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told Al Jazeera. Analysts also point to geopolitical issues likely to impact the route. China’s new “Ice Silk Road” cuts through Russia’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), which has been a key player in commercial shipping in the region for more than a decade.
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