October 14, with the successful arrival of "Istanbul Bridge" at Felixstowe, Britain's largest container port, the first China-Europe Arctic Container Express route was successfully launched.
On this cargo ship, which is the first to complete its voyage in the "Polar Silk Road," unloading operations will be completed one after another at ports in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands, with the exception of cross-border e-commerce cargo. There are also energy storage cabinets and photovoltaic modules . The opening of the new route also means opening up a new channel for photovoltaic and other new energy products to go to Europe. New choice
data under
high export demand show that, as the largest export market of photovoltaic products in China, European photovoltaic modules rely on imports from China, and in 2024, China obtained 94.4 GW module export scale, accounting for more than 40% of the total. Influenced by factors such as export policy and rush to work and hoard goods, China exported about 60.4G W photovoltaic modules to the European market before July 2025, accounting for 47% of the total.
At present, China's photovoltaic modules are mainly exported to Europe by sea, supplemented by land transportation. However, traditional routes are often congested and delayed, resulting in additional logistics costs. At the same time, in recent years, frequent wars along the way, geopolitical frictions and other security risks have become prominent, making photovoltaic export transportation full of uncertainty. Although
the China-EU Arctic Express can not completely replace the traditional transport routes at present, it also provides a faster, more economical, safer and more stable alternative route for Chinese photovoltaic module exporters.
Faster! Under normal circumstances
, the Suez route takes about 40 days, the Cape of Good Hope route takes more than 50 days, and the China-Europe train takes more than 25 days by land.
The Central European Arctic Express is the fastest container route between China and the mainstream basic ports in Europe. Starting from Ningbo,
the "Istanbul Bridge" cargo ship took about 20 days to sail to Britain, and the one-way transport time was more than 20 days shorter than traditional Suez route, more than 30 days shorter than Cape of Good Hope route, with higher transport efficiency and shorter transport time. It also helps photovoltaic enterprises to respond more quickly to the demand of the destination market. The significant shortening of the
voyage will undoubtedly bring about a significant reduction in logistics costs, and will also help photovoltaic enterprises and component traders to reduce the capital occupation and storage costs caused by hoarding, especially for photovoltaic module products with large volume and low unit price.
In addition, the Arctic Express in Central Europe has extremely cold weather, low relative humidity, less condensation on deck cargo surface, and less high salt fog environment on equatorial routes, which has little risk of electrochemical corrosion on component frames and junction boxes, and indirectly helps to reduce cargo damage of component products. Saf
er and more stable!
In recent years, with the complex international situation, the traditional maritime transport routes have been affected by the war in the Red Sea, piracy attacks, and the congestion of the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca, resulting in the loss of goods and transport delays from time to time, which has caused great uncontrollable risks to the global supply chain of China's overseas trade.
At the same time, in recent years, China's photovoltaic modules go to Europe, the traditional route is through the Central European train line, although the transit time is only less than a week slower than Central European Arctic Express, but the carrying capacity of the Central European train is limited, through more countries, cargo detention is not uncommon.
The Central European Arctic Express, which passes through the Sea of Japan, the Bering Strait and the Arctic Ocean and reaches Europe directly, faces relatively low security risks and greatly improves the stability of transport timeliness. The time for
large-scale substitution has not come
, however, at present, the time for replacing traditional routes with Central European Arctic Express to transport photovoltaic module products has not come.
Because it is an extremely cold area with complex ice conditions and unstable climate, the Arctic Channel is only suitable for cargo ship navigation from mid-late July to early October every year, and it is expected that only 16 trips can be operated throughout the year. Even in summer, icebreaker pilotage is needed, and the cost of icebreaker pilotage in autumn and winter is high, and the current cost advantage is not obvious.
Because it is a newly opened route, the construction of routes and supporting infrastructure along the way needs to be improved, especially the limited handling capacity of transit ports, which is also a major disadvantage.
In addition, in the extremely cold environment, new requirements and standards have been put forward for the packaging and in-transit storage conditions of components and other products, which also need to be supplemented.
According to media reports, according to the plan, the Central European Arctic Express will make full use of the Arctic navigation period from July to November next year, while upgrading larger ships, loading more cargo, and striving to run more voyages.
But in any case, the opening of China-Europe Arctic Express also provides a new choice for China's photovoltaic global supply chain from the perspective of timeliness, stability and risk sharing.
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