Bypassing Hormuz and Suez in 20 days 🧊

SHIPPING NEWS

China's "Ice Silk Road" Just Opened for Business

China has begun operating the world's first regular container liner service through the Arctic, bypassing the Suez Canal, Red Sea, and Strait of Hormuz entirely.

On the evening of 15 August, the container ship Dubai Tower—a 1,740-TEU Liberia-flagged vessel departed Ningbo-Zhoushan bound for Felixstowe, UK, via Russia's Northern Sea Route. The transit is scheduled to take roughly 20 days, arriving in the UK around 7 September, followed by calls in Hamburg and Gdynia. Compared with the 40 days a typical Suez routing requires, the Arctic route roughly halves door-to-door transit time between East Asia and Northern Europe.

The service is operated by Chinese carrier Sea Legend under the branding "Ice Silk Road" or China-Europe Arctic Express. Weekly sailings are planned through early October using a rotation of seven ice class or ice strengthened vessels, with capacities mostly between 1,500 and 4,900 TEU. Sea Legend says the service is particularly suited to time-critical and temperature-sensitive cargo, including lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, where the shorter transit and colder passage are commercial advantages.

The route depends on Russian permits and icebreaker support managed by Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation which is under US sanctions. That creates real limits: CMA CGM, MSC, and Hapag-Lloyd have publicly pledged to avoid Arctic transshipment routes, and any cargo interest with significant US exposure faces compliance headaches. The route is also seasonal, only open during the Arctic summer melt.

For Beijing, this is the operational debut of a long planned "Polar Silk Road" designed to reduce dependence on chokepoints controlled or contested by others. Capacity is still small, but the strategic message is loud: for the first time, there is a real northern alternative to Suez.

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How Ferrero Makes Millions Of Chocolates In America

Behind the scenes with Ferrero, the Italian company behind Nutella who is quietly building a confectionery empire in the US. They are spending billions buying up iconic American brands, investing in new factories and an R&D lab, and even creating a new Nutella flavor made just for Americans.

TRADE SNIPPETS

Google Maps launches truck-specific routing to keep freight fleets off restricted roads. Google Maps Platform has rolled out Large Vehicle Routing nationwide, factoring truck height, weight, axle count, and hazmat status into routes, with in-cab clearance alerts and dispatch-to-driver route matching.

Hong Kong launches gold clearing system in bid to become a global bullion trading hub. Hong Kong has begun trial operation of a central gold clearing system, linking physical liquidity with Shanghai, launching a new price ticker, and expanding storage, refining, and MPF-linked gold ETF access.

Saudi Arabia reroutes oil north through Egypt to dodge Houthi threat in Red Sea. Aramco is shuttling crude from Yanbu to Egypt's Ain Sukhna and pumping it via the SUMED pipeline to Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean, lifting northern Red Sea exports 33% to 1.1 million barrels daily.

Greek-owned oil tanker struck by projectile off Oman near the Strait of Hormuz. The Metrostar-managed LR2 tanker Metro Venetian was hit 17km northeast of Ash Shishah, Oman, disabling its engine room. All crew are safe, no pollution reported, and the attackers remain unidentified.

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