Home > Statistics > Foreign Shipping Traffic > 2020 > Number of passengers in foreign shipping traffic fell by 65 per cent in 2020 but goods transport remained almost unchanged

Published: 17 June 2021

Number of passengers in foreign shipping traffic fell by 65 per cent in 2020 but goods transport remained almost unchanged

The coronavirus pandemic had a strong impact on the number of passengers in foreign shipping traffic, which fell by 65 per cent compared with 2019. The number of passengers travelling through Finnish ports was 6.7 million in 2020. Nearly all passengers transported by sea travelled on routes to Estonia and Sweden. During 2020, the goods volume of foreign sea transport totalled 96.0 million tonnes. Sea transport went down by five per cent from the year before. Exports fell by six per cent and totalled 50.2 million tonnes. Imports went down by four per cent and amounted to 45.8 million tonnes. A total of 2.4 million transport equipment were transported. Of them, 53 per cent were passenger cars belonging to passengers.

Foreign sea transport (tonnes) 1970–2020

Goods transport

The goods volume of foreign sea transport was in total 96.0 million tonnes. Of this, transit transport made up nine per cent, or 8.4 million tonnes. General cargo was transported most, 16.5 million tonnes, followed by 11.3 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 46 per cent of all goods exports in sea transport. The busiest ports for goods transport were Sköldvik, HaminaKotka, Helsinki, Kokkola and Naantali. The largest import ports were Sköldvik, Helsinki, Naantali, Raahe and HaminaKotka. The biggest export ports were HaminaKotka, Sköldvik, Helsinki, Kokkola and Rauma. Table 1.

Table 1. Volume of goods transported in foreign sea transport by type of goods in 2018 to 2020

Direction and commodity group		Vuosi
		2018	2019	2020
Export	Timber	839,970	714,705	482,449
	Sawn wood	3,749,891	3,962,493	3,798,860
	Wood pulp	3,600,683	3,874,226	3,943,835
	Paper	8,157,124	7,563,773	6,467,012
	Plywood and veneers	259,001	245,719	212,822
	Ores and concentrates	5,001,231	4,367,797	4,660,187
	Metals and metal manufactures	3,338,673	2,887,695	2,910,408
	Crude oil	9	40	68
	Oil products	8,935,661	9,166,173	8,768,395
	Coal and coke	973,354	1,365,453	799,305
	Fertilizers	3,096,333	3,577,862	3,649,634
	Chemicals	3,403,378	3,557,791	3,518,461
	Crude minerals and cement	1,150,091	1,454,668	1,336,861
	Cereals	415,069	547,694	778,348
	General cargo	9,002,069	8,701,379	7,860,184
	Other merchandise	998,984	1,317,860	1,016,253
	Total	52,921,521	53,305,328	50,203,082
Import	Timber	3,167,139	3,022,638	3,002,951
	Sawn wood	36,216	32,219	33,711
	Wood pulp	430,809	309,255	215,435
	Paper	208,360	212,113	253,996
	Plywood and veneers	32,547	39,346	37,052
	Ores and concentrates	4,855,165	4,274,233	4,372,708
	Metals and metal manufactures	1,279,761	1,370,915	1,412,315
	Crude oil	11,889,441	11,939,810	11,314,437
	Oil products	4,767,546	4,658,124	4,907,966
	Coal and coke	4,254,867	3,407,649	2,597,314
	Fertilizers	256,369	259,915	281,736
	Chemicals	2,815,815	2,669,110	2,479,932
	Crude minerals and cement	4,779,894	4,024,729	3,839,014
	Cereals	124,896	62,498	62,165
	General cargo	9,214,655	8,877,333	8,617,850
	Other merchandise	2,744,086	2,823,196	2,400,071
	Total	50,857,566	47,983,083	45,828,653

Goods transport in containers and transport equipment

A total of 11.9 million tonnes of goods were transported in containers through Finnish ports in 2020. The figure was 8.7 per cent lower than in 2019. The number of containers transported was 840,137 (1,494,014 TEU containers) ¹⁾ . Measured in tonnes, exports of goods transported in containers went down by 9.5 per cent and imports by 6.7 per cent compared to 2019.

A total of 15.6 million tonnes of goods were transported by goods transport equipment and 1.12 million transport equipment were transported in total. Of goods transport equipment, lorries and lorry trailers were transported most, in all 1.09 million. A total of 29,892 other transport equipment were transported. The volume of goods transported by transport equipment and containers totalled 27.5 million tonnes, which is 29 per cent of all goods transported in sea transport.

Transport performance of foreign sea transport

During 2020, the transport performance of foreign sea transport totalled 211.7 billion tonne-kilometres. The transport performance of exports amounted to 143.1 billion tonne-kilometres and that of imports to 68.6 billion tonne-kilometres. In all, 72 per cent of goods imported by foreign sea transport came from countries in the Baltic Sea area and only five per cent from other than European ports. Altogether 48 per cent of export goods were exported to the Baltic Sea area countries and 16 per cent were exported outside European ports. Differences in import and export countries are reflected directly in the transport performance. The transport performance fell by nine per cent compared with 2019.

Exports and imports by area year 2020

Transit transport

Transit transport through Finnish ports totalled 8.4 million tonnes. Most of this was transit exports, 7.9 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 six per cent from 2019. Export transit declined by six per cent and import transit by five per cent.

Table 2. Volume of goods transported in transit traffic by type of goods in 2018 to 2020

Direction and commodity group		Vuosi
		2018	2019	2020
Export	Timber	938	96	203
	Sawn wood	15,916	27,703	15,428
	Wood pulp	10,517	3,146	178
	Paper	19,245	29,781	2,868
	Plywood and veneers	2,166	1,437	1,535
	Ores and concentrates	3,947,160	3,147,988	3,045,453
	Metals and metal manufactures	22,845	28,189	42,736
	Crude oil	-	-	68
	Oil products	66,315	94,598	144,784
	Coal and coke	840,139	1,167,260	646,170
	Fertilizers	1,707,391	2,122,805	2,202,479
	Chemicals	1,560,445	1,658,448	1,668,945
	Crude minerals and cement	3,145	883	14
	Cereals	2,786	5,044	3,508
	General cargo	79,974	93,120	83,944
	Other merchandise	24,775	17,013	11,130
	Total	8,303,757	8,397,511	7,869,443
Import	Timber	-	24	1,533
	Sawn wood	14,499	23,524	15,833
	Wood pulp	1,227	1,056	631
	Paper	4,789	1,963	1,697
	Plywood and veneers	1,582	3,818	9,001
	Ores and concentrates	204	592	357
	Metals and metal manufactures	72,891	55,518	58,598
	Crude oil	-	14	68
	Oil products	235	410	6,510
	Coal and coke	1,101	3,166	4,661
	Fertilizers	1,203	27	96
	Chemicals	53,219	48,403	43,528
	Crude minerals and cement	9,515	9,021	14,274
	Cereals	331	313	124
	General cargo	468,014	316,096	335,405
	Other merchandise	97,618	126,797	69,601
	Total	726,428	590,742	561,917

Passenger transport

A total of 6.7 million persons were transported in passenger traffic in 2020. In all, 4.1 million persons travelled between Finland and Estonia and 2.3 million between Finland and Sweden. Between Finland and Germany 0.1 million passengers were transported, almost no passengers were transported between Finland and Russia. The number of passengers fell by 65 per cent compared to 2019. In January, no passengers of foreign cruise ships arrived in Finland. In 2020, a total of 1.3 million passengers’ cars were transported and 8,264 buses and coaches. Transports of passengers’ cars decreased by 41 per cent and bus transports decreased by 79 per cent.

Volume of transport through the Saimaa Canal

A total of 1,191,842 tonnes of goods were transported through the Saimaa Canal in foreign traffic. Timber was transported most in vessels in foreign traffic, in total 523,854 tonnes. The second most transported were crude minerals and cement, 294,592 tonnes. The volume of traffic through the Saimaa Canal increased by 22 per cent from 2019.

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

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

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Updated 17.06.2021