Political strikes nearly ground the container traffic through the Port of Helsinki to a halt for four weeks this spring, leading industrial operators and traders to turn to lorries for goods transports. At the Port of Helsinki, this resulted in Vuosaari Harbour quieting down and heavy traffic increasing in West Harbour, in particular. The strikes did not affect passenger traffic, and the numbers of passengers increased slightly compared to the previous year.

A total of 3.2 million tonnes of goods were transported through the Port of Helsinki from January to March (an 8.9% reduction from the same time the previous year). Of this amount, 1.5 million tonnes (-9.5%) were imports and 1.7 million tonnes (-9.3%) were exports.

Unitized cargo traffic* amounted to 2.8 million tonnes (-4.0%).

“The start of the year was positive in cargo traffic, but the political strikes in February and March hit cargo transports through the Port of Helsinki hard. Lorry transports ran smoothly, but all other kinds of cargo traffic was nearly at a standstill. Some transport related to security of supply, however, was exluded from the strikes,” says CEO of the Port of Helsinki Ville Haapasaari.
”These exceptionally long strikes will without a doubt have a visible negative impact on our bottom line. At the same time, we are concerned about the impact of the strikes on the much anticipated positive turn in the Finnish economy.”

Number of passengers grew moderately

A total of 1.7 million passengers travelled in scheduled passenger traffic from January to March, which is 4.7% more than in the corresponding period of the previous year.
As usual, the route between Helsinki and Tallinn was the busiest. A total of 1.4 million passengers (+5.5%) travelled on the route.
”MS Cinderella returning as the second vessel on the Viking Line Stockholm route is a positive thing, giving encouraging signals for the coming year in passenger traffic,” Haapasaari estimates.

*Most of the cargo transported via the Port of Helsinki is unitized cargo from Finland’s foreign trade, i.e. cargo transported in containers, lorries and trailers.

Port of Helsinki Traffic Statistics, January–March 2024

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