Finland: Growth continues in Finnish ports

The growth recorded in the Finnish maritime trade during 2003 has also continued in 2004. In 2003, Finland’s ports handled a total of 93.4 million tons of cargo in international shipments, which was seven per cent more than in 2002. During the first eight months of this year, the volume had increased by three per cent.

	Finlands growing foreign trade keeps the stevedores busy in Finland’s largest ports. PHOTO: PÄR-HENRIK SJÖSTRÖM

Last year’s growth was generated by imported goods, totalling 51.8 million tons, reflecting an increase of 14 per cent compared to 2002. The relatively cold winter resulted in a 79 per cent increase in the imports of coal for the power stations, the total volume being 10.8 million tons.

No growth was recorded in the export volumes during 2003, mainly because Central Europe was still suffering from the effects of the global downturn.
Regarding imports, last year’s trends have continued in 2004. Despite a significant decrease in the imports of coal, increasing volumes of mainly oil products, pulpwood, general cargo and metal products have been recorded. The total volume of imported goods increased by four per cent.

This year, however, the export volumes have also increased by two per cent. Of outgoing cargo, paper and general cargo had the largest growth figures.

Strong transit
The Russian market continued to show a strong growth during 2003. The transit shipments, which are included in the total figures above, reached almost the same level in Finnish ports as in the record year 2001. They totalled 5.5 million tons and grew by 0.2 million tons compared to 2002.

	PHOTO: PÄR-HENRIK SJÖSTRÖM

The Finnish transit traffic consists of goods to and from Russia or other parts of the former Soviet Union. In 2003 the incoming transit volumes grew by 0.4 million tons, boosted by the increasing imports of containerised general cargo for further shipments by truck to Russia. However, the outgoing transit volumes decreased by 0.2 million tons due to a dramatic decrease in the shipments of fertilizers.

From January to August 2004, transit shipments went down by five per cent due to smaller volumes of outgoing cargoes.

More passengers
A total of 15.6 million passengers travelled to and from Finland by sea in 2003. This means a growth of 120,000 passengers compared to 2002.
Last year, this growth was solely generated by the ferry traffic between Finland and Sweden. In 2004 the passenger numbers have so far grown on all markets with two exceptions – Latvia and Germany. In both cases, the downturn is capacity-related.

Decline in domestic transports
Both cargo and passenger volumes in domestic traffic decreased during 2003. A total of six million tons of cargo were transported by vessels, which is 0.5 million tons less than in 2002. The largest volumes concerned oil (3.7 Mt) and dry bulk (2.1 Mt) – mainly sand, gravel, wood and coal. Liquid bulk went down by 7 per cent and dry bulk by 12 per cent.

In addition, about one million tons of logs were floated through the inland waterways and 0.6 million tons of pulp wood carried on barges.
Along the coast and on the lakes, a decline of seven per cent was recorded in passenger traffic. A total of 4.3 million passengers were carried, of which 3.9 million in coastal waters, including traffic between mainland Finland and Åland.

//Pär-Henrik Sjöström