ISTANBUL

The first container ship operating on the China-Europe Arctic container express route, the Istanbul Bridge, arrived at the Port of Gdansk in northern Poland on Sunday after a 26-day voyage.

Departing from the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang Province, east China, on Sept. 23, the container vessel Istanbul Bridge carried around 4,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It made stops at ports in the UK and Germany before reaching Poland. Its next stop will be the Netherlands.

The China-Europe Arctic Express Route travels through the Arctic’s Northeast Passage directly to Europe, greatly reducing travel time compared to traditional routes, taking about 40 days via the Suez Canal and 50 days via the Cape of Good Hope.

The Istanbul Bridge arrived at its first European port, Felixstowe in the UK, within just 20 days, a duration comparable to or quicker than the China-Europe freight train, which takes roughly 25 days.

Li Xiaobin, the chief operating officer of the route operator Sea Legend Line Limited, noted that sea and temperature conditions along the Arctic route are ideal for shipping goods that are sensitive to temperature and time.

"The low temperatures help preserve certain high-tech components," Li said.

Sea Legend Line aims to establish regular summer voyages on this route by 2026 and plans to expand its express service network to Eastern Europe during the winter months when the route is not navigable.