 While the ship belonged to the Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO), a state-owned shipping company that operated mainly in the western parts of the Soviet arctic, she was sent to the east shortly after delivery due to the particularly difficult ice conditions of the winter of 1983.After years of service in the arctic the ownership and management of "Monchegorsk" was handed over to NB Shipping, a subsidiary of MSCO that operated a number of SA-15 class freighters, and moved to ice-free waters.On 9 February 2006 "Monchegorsk" collided with the Brunsbüttel locks in the Kiel Canal.