Foreign maritime transport of goods and passengers decreased

The volume of international maritime transport of goods decreased in July for the third consecutive time since the slight rebound recorded in April.

According to to Statistics Finland, the goods volume of foreign sea transport was in total 7.6 million tonnes in July 2020. This is 13% less compared with last year's July.

Exports decreased by 15% and were 3.8 million tonnes, while import volume decreased by 10% and amounted to 3.7 million tonnes.

General cargo was transported most, in total 1.3 million tonnes, which is 17% of all transport. The second most transported was oil products, 1 million tonnes, and crude oil, 0.9 million tonnes.

Container transport

A total of 1 million tonnes of containers were transported through Finnish ports in July 2020, which is 13% less than in July 2019. The number of containers transported was 69,036 (122,507 TEU containers). TEU is the basic measurement unit of container traffic and refers to one container that is twenty feet long, eight feet wide and 8.5 feet high.

Exports of containers went down by 14% measured in tonnes and imports went down by 9% compared to July 2019.

Vehicle transport

A total of 290,633 transport equipment were transported in foreign sea traffic in July 2020. Most of the equipment were cars belonging to passengers.

In July, 201,638 passenger cars were transported. The second most transported were trucks, 53,928 and truck trailers, 31,920.

Passenger traffic

A total of 1,024,175 persons were transported in passenger traffic in July. In all, 727,822 persons travelled between Finland and Estonia and 221,311 persons between Finland and Sweden. Altogether, 61,302 passengers were transported between Finland and Latvia and 13,673 passengers between Finland and Germany.

Passengers made up only 37% of the number of passengers compared with the same month last year.

No passengers of foreign cruise ships arrived in Finland in July.

Saimaa Canal

A total of 163,981 tons of transport were registered through the Saimaa canal in foreign traffic.

Timber was transported most in vessels in foreign traffic, in total 91,924 tonnes.

The second most transported was crude minerals and cement.