Sea transport inches up in April

The goods volume of foreign sea transport was 8.7 million tonnes in total in April 2020, according to Statistics Finland.

In the month, sea transport increased by 0.2 million tonnes year on year.

Exports, however, remained unchanged, amounting to 4.45 million tonnes, while import volume increased by four per cent and amounted to 4.25 million tonnes.

General cargo was transported most, in total 1.4 million tonnes, which is 16 per cent of all transport.

The second most transported cargo was oil products, 1.2 million tonnes, followed by crude oil, 1.1 million tonnes.

A total of 1.1 million tonnes of containers were transported through Finnish ports in April, which is four per cent less than the corresponding figure in April 2019.

The number of containers transported was 78,209 (138,100 Twenty Equivalent Units-TEUs containers).

Exports of containers in the month went down by 3.6 per cent measured in tonnes and imports decreased by eight per cent measured in tonnes compared to the corresponding figures in April 2019.

A total of 93,948 transport equipment was transported in foreign sea traffic in April. Most transports of transport equipment were trucks and truck trailers. A total of 58,824 trucks and 30,635 truck trailers were transported.

A total of 64,811 persons were transported in passenger traffic in April. In all, 40,644 persons travelled between Finland and Estonia and 21,719 persons between Finland and Sweden. Altogether, 2,448 passengers were transported between Finland and Germany. They were equivalent to only five per cent of the number of passengers in April 2019. In April 2020, no passengers of foreign cruise ships arrived in Finland.

A total of 57,024 tonnes of transport were registered through the canal in foreign traffic. Crude minerals and cement was transported most in vessels in foreign traffic, in total, 19,740 tonnes. The second most transported item in foreign traffic was paper.