The 193-km long Suez Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world, dramatically reducing the distance ships need to travel from the Middle and Far East to reach Europe and North America. The canal reduces the journey for an oil tanker sailing from Saudi Arabia to the USA by well over 4,300 km. Supertankers, because of their deep hulls, are unable to use the canal if they are fully laden. However, they can offload some of their cargo into smaller ships, travel through the canal and then load up again for their onward journey, and still make huge savings in time and costs.
In recent years, however, an even shorter sea route between the Far East and China and Europe has begun to emerge. Due to the effects of global warming the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is thawing and receding, making it possible in theory for cargo ships to sail around the north of the Asian continent in the summer months (WIDEWORLD Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 20–22).
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