SIMIC

NORWAY has led all Arctic coastal states in terms of shipping traffic increase, reports High North News, Bodo, Norway.
The report, published annually by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US, shows that the ship counts along the coastal waters above the Arctic Circle and around the sea, Svalbard has increased 42 per cent annually over a nine-year period.
Arctic ship count using data points from automatic identification systems (AIS) transponders between September 1, 2009, and December 31, 2018.
Norway's Arctic shipping traffic has experienced growth far above the other Arctic coastal states.
Iceland's waters increased 11 per cent and Russia's waters increased nine per cent.
Growth in Canada, Greenland, and the US has been limited between one to two per cent.
Out of 277,000 unique ship days recorded in the Arctic in the nine-year period, Norway registered 176,000 or 63 per cent of all ship movements.
Russia and Iceland were second with close to 44,000 and 41,000 ship days respectively representing 15 to 16 per cent of all traffic.