Helsinki Port grants fee discounts for eco-friendly vessels

The Port of Helsinki has granted environmental discounts on vessel charges based on reducing environmental impacts to eight liner traffic vessels, said an official press release on Thursday.

The sum total of the discounts is about 148,000 euros. The maximum discount per cent will be increased for 2019, and the shared efforts to ensure good and safe port operations of the operators in the port will be continued.

According to port pricing, shipping companies may apply for and receive a discount on their vessel charges if they implement measures that reduce air emissions and noise in the port or make other investments that improve the vessels’ environmental efficiency.

“Some measures have already had a positive effect for the residents in the areas around the port through, for example, reduced noise. However, reducing the environmental impact of port operations is a long process, which we monitor constantly through numerous and various means,” said Andreas Slotte, Head of Sustainable Development at the Port of Helsinki.

MS Princess Anastasia, which uses the LJ3 ship berth in West Harbour, underwent considerable noise abatement repairs during last winter’s dry docking: its primary and auxiliary engines were serviced and their silencers were replaced. The noise emission measurements proved that the measures were a success: the noise of the vessel had reduced by approximately 4–5 dB, and the low frequency noise had decreased by approximately 8 dB.

“The changes made were based on feedback from local residents, and the discount awarded by the Port of Helsinki served as a good financial incentive,” said Managing Director Roland Forssell of the Finnish branch of Moby SPL.

The discounts the Port of Helsinki awards based on reducing environmental impacts have garnered plenty of interest, and the port has decided to continue with the experiment in 2019.

In order to strengthen the effect of the campaign, the maximum discount will be raised to four per cent.