News
South Korea's Hyundai Glovis, the logistics unit of Hyundai Motors, is set to embark on cargo transportation via the Arctic sea route for the first time as a Korean undertaking. The first experimental voyage will start on September 15 from Russia's Baltic port of Ust-Luga, loading 37,000 tons of naphtha which Korea's Yeochun NCC is importing from Novatec, Russia's second largest gas producer, and arrive at Kwangyang in mid October.
Yeochun NCC is Korea's largest naphtha cracking center and produces basic feedstock materials for the petrochemical industry.
For the test run, Hyundai Glovis has chartered a 65,000-dwt product tanker from Sweden's Stena. The vessel sailing via Russia can now make this 15,500-kilometer journey in approximately 35 days, compared with the 45-day, 22,200-kilometer trip via the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal. By bypassing the Suez Canal, the Arctic passage allows Hyundai Glovis to cut 10 days in transit time and shun a persistently volatile territory as seen in Egypt where political unrest has been growing recently.
