HHL New York and HHL Amazon successfully navigated the western boundary of the NSR through 70 cm ice and extreme weather conditions to deliver project cargo to Russia Hamburg, Germany, Thursday, 7th January 2016 - HANSA HEAVY LIFT has completed two successful voyages along the western boundary of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) to deliver a heat exchanger weighing 365 metric tons from Fairless Hills, USA and power generation equipment from Italy to Sabetta, Russia. These were the tenth and eleventh voyages for the global tramp carrier and in total the fifth in 2015 through the region around the NSR, which is only open for a seasonal window of four months before the passage freezes over. In October HHL Valparaiso completed a full transit of the NSR from East to West to deliver windmill equipment from China to Poland.
HHL New York and HHL Amazon, which both hold Ice Class E3 equivalent to Russian Arc.4 (Finnish-Swedish Ice Class 1A) navigated through 70 cm of ice in temperatures as low as -19C to deliver the heat exchanger, the most important part of a liquefied natural gas plant, as well as the power generation equipment late last month. All HANSA HEAVY LIFT vessels can travel along sea routes with an ice thickness of up to 0.8 meters and have a bubbling air filter in the ballast water tanks to stop the water from freezing. “When travelling in the Arctic region you are faced with extreme weather conditions, whereby it is of utmost importance to secure the correct permits and finding reliable partners to work with,” said Joerg Roehl, Managing Director and CCO, HANSA HEAVY LIFT. “The NSR is an increasingly important route and our use of it nearly doubled in the last year; however it takes careful preparation, as well as experience and the right equipment in order to succeed.”