Every year, COSCO sends a vessel with containers through the Arctic. This year, Maersk followed suit with the voyage of the 3,956 TEU vessel, Venta. Meanwhile, Arctic shipping hubs are being planned, such as at the ice-free port of Murmansk. Currently, cargo shipped through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is composed of raw materials from oil and gas exploitation, a market subject to volatile prices and finite resources. However, sustainable economic development cannot not be based entirely on commodities with these characteristics and that depend on international market volatility. Thus, the shipment of manufactured goods along the NSR may be the next step in its evolution. Academics agree on the general decline in ice extent and thickness; yet, variability in ice conditions and poorly charted bathymetry in shallow waters may hamper the development of the NSR as a periodic shipping lane for containers.