Haijie Shipping‘s container vessel Dubai Tower arrived at Teesport in the UK on 9 September 2026, completing the first voyage of the carrier’s regular China-Europe Arctic container service for the 2026 season.
The vessel started its voyage from Ningbo-Zhoushan Port on 15 August 2026 before calling at Shanghai, Taicang and Qingdao. It departed Qingdao, the final Chinese port on the route, at noon on 19 August 2026 and continued towards Europe through the Arctic route.
According to Haijie Shipping, the transit between the final Chinese port and the first European port remained at around 20 days.
Teesport was selected as the first UK call on this voyage instead of the originally planned Felixstowe call, providing direct access for customers in northern Britain. Dubai Tower is scheduled to continue to Felixstowe, Hamburg and Gdynia.
The vessel carried 1,370 TEU sourced from industrial clusters in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. Cargo exported from Zhejiang accounted for 56% of the total.
More than half of the Zhejiang cargo consisted of China’s “new three” export categories. Home furnishings and clothing represented more than 30%, with machinery, hardware and cross-border parcels also included.
The shipment also included energy storage units, power batteries and photovoltaic modules, which were identified as temperature-sensitive cargo.
During the voyage, the crew adjusted the route according to updated ice forecasts and conditions observed at sea. Haijie Shipping said operational information was collected on vessel speeds in open water and ice areas, fuel consumption, changing ice conditions and route adjustments around unexpected drifting ice.
The arrival follows the start of regular weekly summer operations on the China-Europe Arctic container service in August 2026. Dubai Tower departed Ningbo-Zhoushan Port on 15 August 2026 to begin the seasonal service after a trial voyage was conducted in 2025.
The service uses Russia’s Northern Sea Route. At the start of regular operations, up to eight ice-strengthened vessels were expected to operate during the 2026 season, using real-time ice monitoring to support route adjustments as weather and ice conditions change.
Further voyages are planned before early October 2026.
