August 10 2026

Sea Legend, a Hong Kong-based container shipping company controlled by Chinese investors, has scheduled eight weekly voyages between China and Europe from August 15 to October 3, 2026, as part of its seasonal China-Europe Arctic Express (CAX) service. Seven container ships will operate the voyages, namely:

– Dubai Tower (IMO #9433066, Ice1, 1 740 TEU);

– Riyadh Mukaab (IMO #9399806, w/o Ice class, 2 872 TEU);

– Athens Odeon (IMO #9235983, w|o Ice class, 1 829 TEU);

– Istanbul Bridge (IMO #9200811, Ice1, 4 890 TEU);

– Tiger Maanshan (IMO #9913559, w/o Ice class, 1 528 TEU);

– Tiger Bintulu (IMO #9549449, w/o Ice class, 1 528 TEU);

– Tiger Lianyungang (IMO #9543122, w/o Ice class, 1 528 TEU).

The Federal State Budgetary Institution “GlavSevmorput” issued permits permits to navigate the Northern Sea Route from August 10 to October 31 for all seven vessels. 

Permission for the Dubai Tower‘s second voyage (late October) will likely be granted later. In China, cargo from Qingdao, Shanghai, Taicang, Nansha, and Fuzhou seaports is consolidated in Ningbo, from where it will be shipped via the Trans Arctic Transport Corridor (TATC)1 to Europe. The transit time between Chinese and European ports is 21 days. The first voyage is scheduled to call at Teesport, with the remaining voyages heading to Felixstowe. Eight calls are planned at Felixstowe, four each at Rotterdam and Hamburg, and one each at Teesport and Gdynia. The first four ships are scheduled to return via the TATC to the port of Shanghai (arrival dates September 30–October 30), while the remaining four will return via the Suez Canal to the port of Ningbo (arrival dates November 8–29).

As previously reported by PortNews, citing Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev, container ships will operate as scheduled in August–October, ice conditions permitting.

Alexey Likhachev also noted that container voyages by Chinese shipping companies have been on the rise in recent years. “In 2023, there were only seven such voyages, 14 in 2024, and 24 in 2025. This year, we expect more than 30 such voyages. Shipments between Chinese and Russian ports already account for almost 15% of all cargo traffic along the NSR. According to our joint plans, cargo traffic between Russia and China should reach 20 million tons by 2030“, the head of Rosatom stated.

As previously reported by PortNews, the container ship Istanbul Bridge completed the voyage from China to Europe via the NSR in 20 days in October 2025.
 1 NSR is a part of TATC

Source: https://portnews.ru/news/395294/