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Published: 20 August 2020

Sea transport decreased by two per cent in 2019

During 2019, the goods volume of foreign sea transport totalled 101.3 million tonnes. Sea transport went down by two per cent from the year before. Exports grew by one per cent and amounted to 53.3 million tonnes. Imports fell by six per cent and amounted to 48.0 million tonnes. A total of 19.1 million persons were transported in passenger traffic, which is about half a per cent more than in 2018. Over 90 per cent of the passengers transported by sea travelled on routes to Estonia and Sweden. A total of 3.3 million transport equipment were transported. Of them, 64 per cent were passenger cars belonging to passengers.

Foreign sea transport (tonnes) 1970–2019

Goods transport

The goods volume of foreign sea transport was in total 101.3 million tonnes. Of this, transit transport made up nine per cent, or nine million tonnes. General cargo was transported most, in total 17.5 million tonnes, followed by 11.9 million tonnes of crude oil. The most imported type of goods was crude oil, which represented 25 per cent of all goods imported by sea. Oil products, general cargo and paper were exported most. These types of goods form 48 per cent of all goods exports in sea transport. The busiest ports for goods transport were Sköldvik, HaminaKotka, Helsinki, Kokkola and Rauma. The largest import ports were Sköldvik, Helsinki, Naantali, Raahe and HaminaKotka. The biggest export ports were HaminaKotka, Sköldvik, Helsinki, Kokkola and Rauma.

Table 1. Volume of goods transported in foreign sea transport by type of goods in 2017 to 2019

Direction and commodity group		Year
		2017	2018	2019
Export	Timber	379,832	839,970	714,705
	Sawn wood	4,183,489	3,749,891	3,962,493
	Wood pulp	3,339,436	3,600,683	3,874,226
	Paper	8,136,067	8,157,124	7,563,773
	Plywood and veneers	295,747	259,001	245,719
	Ores and concentrates	5,386,047	5,001,231	4,367,797
	Metals and metal manufactures	3,223,492	3,338,673	2,887,695
	Crude oil	-	9	40
	Oil products	9,046,997	8,935,661	9,166,173
	Coal and coke	257,972	973,354	1,365,453
	Fertilizers	2,873,173	3,096,333	3,577,862
	Chemicals	3,291,016	3,403,378	3,557,791
	Crude minerals and cement	1,191,530	1,150,091	1,454,668
	Cereals	622,442	415,069	547,694
	General cargo	8,298,230	9,002,069	8,701,379
	Other merchandise	957,470	998,984	1,317,860
	Total	51,482,940	52,921,521	53,305,328
Import	Timber	1,506,548	3,167,139	3,022,638
	Sawn wood	18,397	36,216	32,219
	Wood pulp	449,514	430,809	309,255
	Paper	231,709	208,360	212,113
	Plywood and veneers	38,931	32,547	39,346
	Ores and concentrates	4,341,494	4,855,165	4,274,233
	Metals and metal manufactures	1,352,950	1,279,761	1,370,915
	Crude oil	11,270,400	11,889,441	11,939,810
	Oil products	4,617,498	4,767,546	4,658,124
	Coal and coke	4,277,678	4,254,867	3,407,649
	Fertilizers	261,221	256,369	259,915
	Chemicals	2,712,816	2,815,815	2,669,110
	Crude minerals and cement	4,681,539	4,779,894	4,024,729
	Cereals	61,261	124,896	62,498
	General cargo	9,072,946	9,214,655	8,877,333
	Other merchandise	2,399,911	2,744,086	2,823,196
	Total	47,294,813	50,857,566	47,983,083

Goods transport in containers and transport equipment

A total of 13 million tonnes of goods were transported in containers through Finnish ports in 2019. The figure was 1.4 per cent lower than in 2018. The number of containers transported was 922,471 (1,617,879 TEU containers) ¹⁾ . Exports of goods transported in containers grew by 1.8 per cent measured in tonnes and imports fell by eight per cent compared with 2018.

A total of 16 million tonnes of goods were transported by goods transport equipment and 1.2 million transport equipment were transported in total. Of goods transport equipment, lorries and lorry trailers were transported most, in all 1.1 million. A total of 45,966 other transport equipment were transported. The volume of goods transported by transport equipment and containers totalled 29.5 million tonnes, which is 29 per cent of all goods transported in sea transport.

Transport performance of foreign sea transport

During 2019, the transport performance of foreign sea transport totalled 231.7 billion tonne-kilometres. The transport performance of exports amounted to 161.1 billion tonne-kilometres and that of imports to 70.6 billion tonne-kilometres. In all, 73 per cent of goods imported by foreign sea transport came from the Baltic Sea states and only five per cent from other than European ports. Altogether 48 per cent of export goods were exported to the Baltic Sea states and 18 per cent were exported outside European ports. Differences in import and export countries are reflected directly in the transport performance. The transport performance grew by 12 per cent compared with 2018.

Exports and imports by area year 2019

Transit transport

Transit transport through Finnish ports totalled nine million tonnes. Most of this was transit exports, 8.4 million tonnes. Transit imports amounted to 0.6 million tonnes The majority of transit exports consists of ores and concentrates, as well as fertilisers, chemicals and coal and coke. These groups of goods form 96 per cent of transit shipments. Over one-half of transit imports are general cargo. Transit transport went down by half a per cent from 2018. Export transit went up by 1.1 per cent and import transit fell by 19 per cent.

Table 2. Volume of goods transported in transit traffic by type of goods in 2017 to 2019

Direction and commodity group		Year
		2017	2018	2019
Export	Timber	745	938	96
	Sawn wood	8,499	15,916	27,703
	Wood pulp	3,351	10,517	3,146
	Paper	4,553	19,245	29,781
	Plywood and veneers	4,351	2,166	1,437
	Ores and concentrates	4,392,285	3,947,160	3,147,988
	Metals and metal manufactures	20,834	22,845	28,189
	Oil products	65,306	66,315	94,598
	Coal and coke	62,499	840,139	1,167,260
	Fertilizers	1,450,352	1,707,391	2,122,805
	Chemicals	1,427,223	1,560,445	1,658,448
	Crude minerals and cement	1,315	3,145	883
	Cereals	63	2,786	5,044
	General cargo	72,274	79,974	93,120
	Other merchandise	30,483	24,775	17,013
	Total	7,544,133	8,303,757	8,397,511
Import	Timber	183	-	24
	Sawn wood	7,052	14,499	23,524
	Wood pulp	508	1,227	1,056
	Paper	9,765	4,789	1,963
	Plywood and veneers	3,302	1,582	3,818
	Ores and concentrates	316	204	592
	Metals and metal manufactures	88,997	72,891	55,518
	Crude oil	133	-	14
	Oil products	519	235	410
	Coal and coke	2,856	1,101	3,166
	Fertilizers	-	1,203	27
	Chemicals	46,304	53,219	48,403
	Crude minerals and cement	3,140	9,515	9,021
	Cereals	552	331	313
	General cargo	612,009	468,014	316,096
	Other merchandise	53,914	97,618	126,797
	Total	829,550	726,428	590,742

Passenger traffic

A total of 19.1 million persons were transported in passenger traffic in 2019. In all, 9 million persons travelled between Finland and Estonia and 8.6 million between Finland and Sweden. Altogether, 0.2 million passengers were transported between Finland and Russia and 0.2 million passengers between Finland and Germany. The number of passengers grew by about half a per cent compared to 2018. In 2019, a total of 1.2 million passengers of foreign cruise ships arrived in Finland. The number of cruise passengers grew by 16 per cent from the year before. In 2019, a total of 2.2 million passengers’ cars were transported and 40,000 buses and coaches. Transports of passengers’ cars increased by 1.2 per cent and bus transports decreased by 6.6 per cent.

Goods volume in the Saimaa Canal

A total of 980,053 tonnes of goods were transported through the Saimaa Canal in foreign traffic. Timber was transported most in vessels in foreign traffic, in total 403,317 tonnes. The second most transported were crude minerals and cement, 293,273 tonnes. The volume of traffic through the Saimaa Canal decreased by 20 per cent from 2018.

1) TEU, the basic measurement unit of container traffic, refers to one container that is twenty feet long, eight feet wide and 8.5 feet high.

Source: Transport and tourism, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Matti Kokkonen 029 551 3770, matti.kokkonen@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Ylä-Jarkko

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