SSG No 20 - Shipgaz

POrTS & mAriTimE LOGiSTiCS
The container vessel Aura arriving at the port of Helsinki.
152,000 tons of cargo, almost completely
shipped between mainland Finland and
Åland.
steady passenger traffic
The volumes in the passenger traffic have
not seen any dramatic changes during the
ongoing decade. Despite some small changes
from year to year, the traffic between Finland
and Sweden has been between nine and ten
million during the last ten years. Last year
the volume was 9.6 million passengers.
The passenger volumes in the ferry traffic
to Estonia have been about six million during
the last eight years. In 2006 the number
of passengers totalled 5.9 million.
In all, 16.3 million passengers travelled to
and from Finland by ferry in international
traffic. Domestic traffic totalled 4 million
passengers, of which 2.4 million in the Hel-
Pär-HEnrik SjöSTröm
sinki region. The 15 minute crossing between
Helsinki and the fortress of Suomenlinna
(Sveaborg) is one of the busiest domestic
services. Other significant traffic areas are
the Åland and Turku archipelagos. These figures
also include 0.5 million passengers on
the domestic leg on the large ferries sailing
between Finland and Sweden via Åland.
Concentration
In 2006 the foreign cargo traffic was shipped
through 50 ports in Finland. However, 74
per cent of the traffic was concentrated to
the ten largest ports. The shipments to and
from ports in the Lake Saimaa district via
the Saimaa Canal totalled 2.1 million tons.
The largest port in Finland was Sköldvik,
owned by Neste Oil and situated by the
company’s refinery in Porvoo (Borgå). The
main cargo flow consisted of crude oil in
and oil products out. The outgoing product
shipments also included coastal traffic
to Finnish ports, which is not included in
the international statistics.
Helsinki (Helsingfors) was Finland’s second
largest port by volume and the largest
municipal port.
pär-henrik sjöström
V E R I STAR