# Comparative Studies of Major Sea Routes
## 4 Case Study of the Sea Routes between Southeast Asia and Europe Evaluation
The sea route through the Panama Canal is not currently widely used by ships that sail between Southeast Asia and Europe, but this route could potentially be used [18; 19] (Figure 7). The sea route via the Panama Canal has a length of about 14,000 nautical miles; assuming the commercial sailing speed of ships indicated above (14 knots for a bulk carrier, 17 knots for a container ship) and considering the average waiting time of ships, for sailing through the Panama Canal (about 10 h), the total sailing time for a bulk cargo ship is about 42 days, and for a container ship about 35 days. During navigation, an average bulk carrier that can navigate the new locks of the Panama Canal consumes about 2900 t of petroleum product fuel, while a container ship uses about 5000 t of petroleum product fuel [42; 43]. The cost of transporting a container by this sea route is about EUR 2200 [44]. The main limitation of ships using the sea route through the Panama Canal is the limited parameters of the ships, i.e., length of ships up to 365 m, width of ships up to 50 m, and draft of ships up to 15.5 m [47]. In terms of emissions generated by ships, a conditional bulk carrier generates about 9200 t of carbon dioxide using petroleum product fuel, or about 6600 t using LNG [45; 46]. A container ship currently generates about 17,000 t of carbon dioxide when using petroleum product fuel, or about 11,500 t when using LNG fuel [33]. The Northern Sea route has recently been widely promoted as the shortest route between Southeast Asia and Europe [18; 19] (Figure 8). The distance between the ports of Shanghai and Rotterdam using the Northern Sea route is about 9000 nautical miles. At the same time, it should be noted that about 2500 nautical miles pass through the Northern Sea route, where ships have to use icebreaker services for most of the year [48]. It prevents them from maintaining the accepted commercial speed of ships; the ships are limited by their parameters, i.e., most vessels could only be up to PANAMAX size (mostly up to 250 m length, up to 30 m beam, up to 12 m draft, except for standard LNG tankers that have Arctic 5 or Arctic 7 ice class); and the vessels must have A1 or A1 Super ice class (which corresponds to no less than Arctic 5 ice class) [16; 27; 49]. Considering the need to sail with an icebreaker escort, the average sailing time of a bulk cargo ship is about 32 days in summer and about 37 days in winter; the total sailing time of a container ship between the indicated ports in the summer period is about 29 days,  
Figure 7: Sea route between Shanghai and Rotterdam via Panama Canal. and in winter--about 34 days (provided that the ships do not have to wait for icebreaker assistance). At the same time, the average fuel consumption for a bulk cargo ship using oil products fuel in the summer period is about 2000 t, and in winter--about 2400 t [50,51]. The fuel consumption of a container ship is about 3300 t in the summer period and about 4200 t in the winter period [50]. The cost of transporting a container by this sea route is around EUR 2300, and additionally, the costs of icebreaker assistance, which amount to around EUR 300 per container in the summer period and around EUR 400 in the winter period should be considered [28,52]. The main limitations of the Northern Sea route are the ship parameters (ships could only be up to PANAMAX size and must have A1 or A Super ice class), the need to use icebreakers, and the high probability of ship damage due to ice. In terms of emissions generated by ships, a conditional bulk carrier generates about 6500 t of carbon dioxide in the summertime and 7700 t in the wintertime using petroleum product fuel, or about 4600 t in the summertime and about 5600 t in the wintertime using LNG [45,46,53]. A container ship currently generates about 11,000 t of carbon dioxide in the summertime and about 14,000 t in the wintertime when using petroleum product fuel, or about 7700 t in the summertime and about 10,000 t when using LNG fuel [33].