South Korea’s first container ship pilot through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) could pay off even if the route never becomes a major alternative to the Suez Canal, because the larger economic opportunity may lie in the ships, technology, ports and expertise needed for a growing Arctic maritime economy.

The 2,758-Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) PanStar Acro left Busan on Saturday carrying 737 TEUs of commercial cargo and 100 empty containers on a planned 40- to 45-day round trip through Arctic waters to Felixstowe, Rotterdam and Gdansk.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) said that the voyage would give it