Korea’s historical Arctic voyage did not go all smoothly
The container carrier that conducted South Korea’s first voyage on the Northern Sea Route experienced a series of problems and is now reportedly up for sale.
The South Korean shipping company PanStar had major ambitions for its new Arctic operations. In late August, the container carrier PanStar Acro set out from the port of Busan, arriving 21 days later in Felixstowe, UK. It was the first ever Korean container ship to have sailed the Northern Sea Route.
In late September, the ship started its return voyage, and on 24 September it sailed along the Norwegian Arctic coast, bound for Russian Arctic waters.
When it arrived back in Busan in mid-October, the ship and its crew were greeted by the country’s President Lee Jae Myung and a crowd of 200 people.
The voyage of the PanStar Acro was a trial voyage intended to pave the way for several more shipments.
"The PanStar Group is advancing South Korea’s first pilot operation of a container ship via the Arctic shipping route, opening a new era in maritime logistics," the company informed on its website.
"The Arctic shipping route is a new maritime transportation corridor connecting the Port of Busan with major European ports via the northern waters of Russia," it added.
However, not everything proceeded as planned. According to Morskaya Rabota, a Russian social media channel covering the shipping industry, the PanStar Acro ran into drift ice in the area of Wrangel Island in the Chukchi Sea and had to change course and wait for better conditions.
In addition, cold weather reportedly caused problems for the engine and fuel system, while GPS and satellite communications sporadically failed.
The PanStar Acro carried a load of 737 TEU, which is less than one third of its capacity. As a result, the company made major losses on the voyage.
Reportedly, the company also found it difficult to get the shipment insured, Morskaya Rabota reported.
According to SBS News, a Korean newspaper, the PanStar Group is now in the process of selling the PanStar Acro.
PanStar Group had acquired the vessel from the company HMM just a month before the Arctic voyage. Reportedly, the prospective buyer is HMM, the ship’s original owner.
The sale is prompting criticism that the Arctic trial voyage might have been nothing but a one-off operation.
The move is seen as a transaction to offset the deficits incurred from the Arctic test voyage, making it increasingly likely that PanStar’s Arctic venture will end up as a one-time event.
PanStar denied that it is completely giving up on the Arctic route business itself, stating that it plans to acquire another vessel and attempt a test voyage again next year, SBS News reported.
