Norilsk Nickel's vessel came back from its trial voyage

As reported earlier, on September 16 this container carrier left Murmansk for its first voyage from Murmansk to Shanghai via Dudinka and Busang.
This is the shortest route for delivering the Company’s products from its production sites to the consumers in the South-Eastern Asia.
Therefore, the journey is unique of the kind, as it was the first time in the history of navigation along the Northern Sea Route and in the history of MMC Norilsk Nickel, when a commercial vessel owned by Russia’s leading miner and metal producer cruised the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route without any ice-breaker support.
According to Sergey Buzov, Deputy General Director – Head of Transport and Logistics unit of MMC Morilsk Nickel, “for us, is was an invaluable experience, which we will use in future planning of our transport operations. In addition, the voyage may be regarded as the Company’s contribution to the development of Russian Maritime Declaration in exploration and development of new Arctic regions and Arctic wealth. It proves the effectiveness of decisions made by Maritime Council and Russian Ministry of Transport to explore the Northern Sea Route as a short transit thoroughfare connecting Europe and South-East Asia, and confirms the possibility of prolonged Arctic navigation period”.
The Captain Sergey Kudryavtsev and the crew in general fulfilled their tasks at the highest possible level, thus demonstrating high potential of specialists working in the transport department of the Company and proving their ability to master the most complex logistics problems.
It took no more than 169 hours 15 minutes (7.05 days) to cover the distance from Cape Dezhnev to Dudinka (2240 nautical miles), which means that Monchegorsk set a  new record for such a late-in-year navigation season. The vessel’s average speed during this passage was 13.23 knots.
Total length of the round trip Dudinka-Providence Bay-Busang-Shanghai-Nakhodka-Dudinka was 11,320 miles, total duration 58 days, total steaming time 41 days, average speed 11.5 knots.
Total distance made by the ship along the Northern Sea Route was 5,162 miles including 2,545 miles in clear water and 2,617 miles in ices. Total duration of the voyage by the Northern Sea Route – 15.7 days, average speed 13.7 knots.
For information: the distance from Dudinka to Shanghai and back to Dudinka via Suez Channel is 24,100 miles and total steaming time 84 days.
Presently the Company owns five ARC-7 ice-class vessels of Norilsk Nickel type for arctic transportation. Sixth vessel will be introduced in 2011. The vessels are built in accordance with latest environmental and technological safety requirements. The modern technology of double action enables diesel electric vessels of MMC Norilsk Nickel to navigate independently through Arctic ice without ice-breaker support.