One key factor in shipping is that it must remain competitive.

Mikki Koskinen is Vice President of the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) for 2024–2025. He will become the first Finnish President of ECSA in 2026–2027.
 
European shipping companies have been eager to push the environmental and sustainability agenda.
“However, shipping can only be fully decarbonised once we have enough new clean fuels available,” says Koskinen.
Shipping companies need support to introduce these new and more expensive fuels.
“The best way of supporting them is to reinvest the money raised via emissions trading in the shipping industry in a way that reduces the price differential for new fuels.”

Shipping companies guarantee security of supply

Recent events have highlighted the key role that shipping plays in both security issues and guaranteeing European security of supply. Koskinen says that it is extremely important for shipping companies to keep sailing under European flags.
“This applies to all European countries, but especially to Finland, as 96 per cent of its imports and exports are transported by sea,” says Koskinen.

It is also vital for the maritime sector to recruit skilled personnel.
“The CEOs of every European shipping company should personally commit to this, or else our business continuity is in jeopardy. We have the chance to create great career stories both on land and at sea, with great job opportunities and amazing experiences. We just need to rebrand this sector to make it more attractive.”

Towards zero emissions

ESL Shipping has worked hard on environmental issues, and is aiming to halve its emission intensity by 2030. Zero emissions should be achieved by 2040.
“We placed our biggest order ever last October. We’re investing EUR 186 million in four multi-purpose, e-methanol bulk carriers, primarily for traffic in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Kvarken link between Sweden and Finland. They will serve the growing number of industrial plants that are investing in the green transition, as both SSAB and Stegra in northern Sweden are significantly increasing their capacity for clean steel production. The aim is to run our ships on Finnish fossil-free fuel.

Although Finnish power plants are no longer being supplied with coal, this did not cause any problems for ESL Shipping.
“We were happy to supply them for 76 years, but we’ve known for a long time that it was coming to an end, so we’ve had time to find other work for our ships.”
“The only real pity is that our ships are now rarely seen in downtown Helsinki harbours, and there are no ships unloading their cargo under our office windows.”

A young man interested in tales of the export trade

“I attended an inland school until I moved to Turku to study at the School of Economics. My parents worked in healthcare, but my mother had one distant relative, Erkki Poikonen, who ran his own shipping office.
“He shipped timber from Finland to Arab countries and the Mediterranean. When he came to visit, he’d tell us tales of his travels around the world, and I’ve often wondered whether I got the germ of an idea from those stories, because it was very different from our life at home. There was something in them – something that I’d always wanted to do.”

Sailing has also become a hobby for Koskinen.
“During the summer, I sail around in a traditional Merikarvia-style wooden boat with a rear cabin, which my father-in-law and I commissioned ten years ago. It’s slow, so you have time to think while you’re out on the water. There are so many rocks about that no other kind of boat is an option. There are no signposted routes or channels. There are lots of rocks, but if you touch one, the boat just sways a bit and keeps going.”

WHO?

Matti-Mikael Koskinen has a master’s degree in economics.
 
Managing Director of ESL Shipping Oy since 1 May 2013.
 
Vice-President of the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) 2024–2025,
and President 2026–2027.
 
He enjoys sailing, walking and skiing.