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Busan Metropolitan City Partners with PanStar for Arctic Route Trial Voyage, Accelerating Its Leap as a Maritime Capital

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Chun Jae-soo, announced that it will sign a memorandum of understanding on “Arctic Route Operations and the Promotion of Related Industries” with PanStar Enterprise Co., Ltd. and PanStar Line Dot Com Co., Ltd. today, August 20, at 2:30 p.m. in the International Protocol Room of Busan City Hall.

The signing ceremony will be attended by Mayor Chun Jae-soo, PanStar Group Chairman Kim Hyun-kyum, PanStar President of External Cooperation Kwak In-seop, and other officials.

Busan Metropolitan City is pursuing the development of Busan as a hub city for the Arctic Route as a key initiative that will determine the city’s future leap forward.

Amid recent climate change and the restructuring of global supply chains, the Arctic Route is drawing attention as a key axis of future maritime logistics because it can shorten sailing distance by approximately 30 percent and reduce travel time by more than 10 days compared with the existing Suez Canal route, thereby lowering logistics costs while enhancing supply chain stability.

The memorandum of understanding on “Arctic Route Operations and the Promotion of Related Industries” was arranged to establish a cooperative framework between the City and the private sector on the occasion of a Korean private shipping company’s Arctic Route trial voyage and to proactively prepare for the era of Arctic shipping.

In particular, the trial voyage is significant as Korea’s first Arctic Route trial voyage by a container vessel. The project is being promoted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and organized by the Korea Ocean Business Corporation and the Korea Shipowners’ Association.

For the trial voyage, PanStar Line Dot Com Co., Ltd. plans to deploy the PanStar Acro, a 2,800-TEU-class container vessel with ice-resistant capabilities suitable for polar navigation. The vessel is scheduled to depart Busan Port around August 22 and sail through the Bering Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The main provisions of the agreement include establishing a cooperative framework to ensure the smooth implementation of the Arctic Route trial voyage, providing support and cooperating to attract cargo for the trial voyage, sharing information related to the trial voyage, and cooperating to promote the Arctic Route.

Busan Metropolitan City plans to strengthen cooperation with relevant organizations and the local shipping and logistics industries and to support the smooth implementation of the trial voyage through efforts including cargo attraction and administrative assistance.

PanStar plans to carry out the trial voyage safely, share with the City information accumulated during the voyage regarding route conditions, cargo transportation, and vessel operations, and maintain continued cooperation.

Based on PanStar’s vessel-operating capabilities and expertise to be accumulated through the trial voyage, Busan Metropolitan City plans to further define the functions and roles Busan should perform on the Arctic Route and to gradually establish the support framework and tailored policies required to develop Busan into an Arctic Route hub city.

Mayor Chun Jae-soo said, “This memorandum of understanding will serve as an important foundation for Busan, once situated at the far edge of Asia, to emerge as a hub city on the Arctic Route, which provides the fastest connection between Europe and Asia.”

He added, “At the heart of the great transformation toward a future in which our young people no longer have to leave their hometown in search of jobs are the Arctic Route and Busan as a maritime capital. By joining forces with PanStar, we will open a new path for Korea’s maritime logistics and make Busan a true maritime capital.”