# Comparative Studies of Major Sea Routes
## 4 Case Study of the Sea Routes between Southeast Asia and Europe Evaluation
Conducted research on the navigation of ships on the Northern Sea route during the last 5 years in different seasons allowed us to evaluate the average speed of ships in different periods of the year when sailing without the aid of icebreakers (this is mostly performed by LNG standard tankers with Arctic 5 or Arctic 7 ice classes) and with the aid of icebreakers. The average sailing speeds of ships obtained on the basis of 5 years of observations are presented in Figure 9[18,19]. In 2024, in January and February, ships \"Pugnax\" and \"Audax\" sailed via the Northern Sea route from the Bering Strait to the northern tip of the island of Novaya Zemlya using two of the most powerful nuclear icebreakers currently available. The total sailing time on the Northern Sea route was 39 days. The average daily sailing speed from 19 January 2024 to 27 February 2024 using the icebreaker \"50 Let Spoedy\" and from 2 February 2024 additionally using the icebreaker \"Arktika\" are presented in Figures 10 and 11[18,19]. Figure 8: Northern Sea route between Shanghai and Rotterdam. In this way, the Northern Sea route can be theoretically analyzed, but for practical purposes, it is not suitable for connecting the largest economic regions. Figure 11: Average scaling speeds in the convoy of the ships “PUGNAX” and “AUDAX” using two icebreakers (“50 Let Pobedy” and “Arktika”) in the Northern Sea route every 2 days. Figure 9: Average sailing speed of vessels (without icebreaker assistance and with icebreaker assistance) in different months of the Northern Sea route. In January 2024, a cargo ship (A1 ice class, DWT about 7000 t) sailing the Northern Sea route with the help of a nuclear icebreaker sailed from the Bering Strait to the northern tip of the Novaya Zemlya island (Figure 12) [18]; the sailing time was 14 days, the distance was about 2450 nautical miles, and the average speed was about 7.1 knots. Using the sea route Benchmarking methodology presented in Section 3, a Benchmark index was estimated by analyzing the four main sea routes between Southeast Asia's largest port, Shanghai, and Europe's largest port, Rotterdam. In this way, the following Benchmark indices were obtained using initial statistical data presented in Table 1.  
In the calculation, the following factor weight coefficients are taken: transportation price--0.3; transportation time--0.2; ship parameter limitations (draft)--0.3; fuel consumption--0.1; \(CO_{2}\) generation--0.1. The correlation coefficient is taken as 0.98. The Benchmark index of sea routes is important when choosing a specific sea route and when choosing possible freight rates and other factors that may be important in the case of the specific transportation of goods. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Sea Routes Data** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Sea Route via** \\ **Suez Canal** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Sea Route around** \\ **Africa Continent** \\ \end{tabular} & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Sea Route via** \\ **Panama Canal** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Northern Sea** \\ **Route** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Total distance, n.m. & 10,800 & 14,100 & 14,000 & 9000 \\ \hline Distance with limitations, n.m. & 140 & - & 80 & 2500 \\ \hline Ship’s speed, kn & 17 & 17 & 17 & 17 \\ \hline Ship’s speed on limitation sections, kn & 12 & - & 8 & 8 \\ \hline Additional waiting time, hours & 10 & - & 10 & \\ \hline Total sailing time, days & 27 & 35 & 35 & 29 \\ \hline Allowable draft of the ship, m & 18 & 25 & 16 & 12 \\ \hline Transportation price per container, EUR & 1500 & 2200 & 2200 & 2300 \\ \hline Additional price per container, EUR & - & - & - & 300 \\ \hline Fuel consumption (diesel), tons & 3050 & 4900 & 5000 & 3300 \\ \hline \(CO_{2}\) generation, tons & 9800 & 15,000 & 17,000 & 11,000 \\ \hline Benchmark indices & 1.16 & 1.34 & 1.50 & 1.60 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Basic sea routes between Shanghai and Rotterdam data for benchmarking and Benchmark indices. Figure 12: Navigation path of a cargo ship with an icebreaker in January 2024.