Jukka Kallio’s career has taken him from the high seas to the shipyards and back to port. Yet not much has changed in 45 years, even though ships have gotten bigger.

In the autumn, at the age of 62, Jukka Kallio will leave his position as Vice President, Cargo at the Port of Helsinki.

“I’ll still be a couple of years away from official retirement age,” Kallio says.

The last day of August will be his last day at work. Then he will take his unused holidays, of which he has accumulated almost six months.

“It’s time to do something else. And that something isn’t work – I’m not moving on to another job. Whether I’ll go back to work depends on my six-month vacation. That will tell me whether I’m still interested in working, whether I want to go back to work and what I might like to do,” says Kallio.

He refuses to describe his future in any more detail. Kallio already has a 45-year career behind him. He spent the first quarter of a century at sea, and the rest at shipyards and in port. Kallio is a qualified sea captain. Can you manage port operations without experience at sea?

“It’s up to the selector to decide what kind of expertise they want, but ports need to maintain their maritime expertise in one way or another. Ships and shipping companies are a port’s most important customers. You need to be able to speak the same language. But it’s up to the port how it wants to organise things internally,” says Kallio.

Kallio joined the Port of Helsinki as its harbour master in 2008. He had recently completed an online vocational qualification at Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, and his Diploma in Ship Superintendency focused on topics such as maritime regulations and safety issues. The harbour master is responsible for the overall safety and security of the port and communications with shipping companies. Kallio was already used to making safety a priority from his time at sea.

Safety always comes first

“No matter what type of ship it is, safety always comes first. Safety is particularly important on passenger, oil, chemical and gas ships,” says Kallio.

By that time, he already had experience of all kinds of ships. As harbour master, he was responsible for the port’s safety functions, fairways and shipping-related matters.

There were a lot of moving parts to fit together. In Helsinki, the harbour master was also responsible for environmental issues.

“The port area must be made safe for everyone who’s working there or transporting goods, including ship crews and ship’s officers.”

During Kallio’s time as harbour master, there was one fatal accident in stevedoring at the Port of Helsinki. It involved one of the port operators and not the port’s own operations. The most serious accident precursor was the overheating of a container caused by polymerization during the transport of hazardous substances. That happened ten years ago in Vuosaari.

“Accidents involving hazardous substances are among the most serious that can occur. There’s no messing around with that stuff,” says Kallio.

Vuosaari opened during the financial crisis

The Port of Helsinki’s harbour master used to be based at Satamatalo in the South Harbour. Kallio moved to Vuosaari in 2013 when he became Director of Vuosaari Harbour.

“I replaced Kari Noroviita in Vuosaari. The harbour master’s safety and environmental department was also permanently shut down at that time, and safety issues were integrated into business operations,” says Kallio.

Vuosaari Harbour opened just as the financial crisis hit. The opening ceremony was held at Sponda Hall in November 2008 in the middle of a blizzard.

“There’s video footage from the first day showing how everything was covered in snow and we had to shovel it off the ship ramps by hand.”

During Kallio’s time at Vuosaari, the volume of cargo passing through the harbour increased once the financial crisis ended. The largest single increase in traffic came with the start-up of Metsä Group’s Äänekoski bioproduct mill in August 2017. That brought one million tons of additional cargo to Vuosaari every year.

“It’s not easy to get such a large increase in goods in one go. But you have to remember that when larger vessels started to sail the Vuosaari–Muuga route a few years ago, we could move a hundred – or even a hundred and fifty – thousand units a year. And if the average weight is, say, 20 tons, that’s a total of more than two million tons.

A single forestry industry project may feel big, but even a single ship operating at short intervals can generate incredible volumes,” says Kallio.

A few years ago, when he was appointed Vice President of Cargo, his area of responsibility expanded to cover not only Vuosaari, but also all of the other cargo passing through the Port of Helsinki.

“There were a few more customers, and traffic jams in the city centre, but the tasks themselves didn’t change.”

From container shortages to oversupply

The Port of Helsinki has always been primarily an import port, with a particular focus on bringing groceries to where the majority of people live, that is, the Helsinki region.

As the port is well trafficked and containers are unloaded there, there is also a good chance of obtaining industrial exports.

“The containers can then be loaded with, for example, forestry industry products. Although the containers are not always the right size. A lot of imports come in short containers, while exports often need longer ones,” says Kallio. 

At the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Helsinki also experienced a shortage of containers, as many containers were stuck at the world’s major ports.

“After Russia’s dreadful invasion of Ukraine, things are the other way around. We have too many containers that are unnecessarily taking up space,” says Kallio.

The container balance is also being affected by an increase in ship size that has occurred over the decades. Fewer visits are now made by larger ships, which means that containers spend more time waiting at port. Rather than increasing the height of container stacks, the alternative is either to raise traffic volumes or find more storage space in the port area. An expansion of Vuosaari Harbour will soon be on the table.

“We’ll start with a concept plan this year, which means that we’ll commission consultants to come up with a few alternatives. Then we’ll see which option we’re going to move forward with and to what schedule,” says Kallio.

In the best-case scenario, he estimates that construction could begin in the late 2020s and the expansion would then be ready in the mid-2030s at the earliest.

The master plan for Helsinki has an area of about 40 hectares reserved for the expansion of Vuosaari Harbour. This area is located to the southeast, right next to the marina. It would be an extension of the roro and ropax harbour, which would mean more quays and extra space on land.

“Our port areas are intended for unit traffic and we have no plans for any large-scale moves into other types of cargo,” says Kallio.

Once the concept plans have been drawn up, the permit process will begin with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Water permits will also be required, as the fairway will need to be deepened. The EIA process for deepening the old shipyard’s fairway was not carried out in conjunction with the deepening of Vuosaari’s main fairway, as it would have delayed the process by a couple of years.

“Yet it still took six years to get through all the courts – and that won’t be going away either,” says Kallio.

This time around, there will be more time for the permit process, as there are no plans to start construction in the next few years.

From ships to port

Jukka Kallio went to sea in 1978. He spent a quarter of a century sailing the seven seas on all kinds of ships. He has worked for a number of shipping companies on cargo vessels, tankers and gas ships, bulk carriers, roro and ropax vessels, passenger ferries and, finally, cruise ships. Kallio spent five years in Asia working on Star Cruises ships.

“In practice, I worked at sea from 1978 to 2000, and then stayed in the shipyards. When Star Cruises got its first big ship, I was overseeing its construction in Germany. I was in Miami on what was then the world’s largest Voyager of the Seas ship, when my former boss called. He had transferred to the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and wondered if I wanted to come to the shipyard in Turku. I then spent half my time in Turku and half in Germany, as Royal Caribbean was building ships in both places.”

Before joining the port, Kallio spent five years as a maritime pilot off the coast of Helsinki. The rhythm on land is different to that aboard ship. When he was working at sea, Kallio spent half a year away from Finland, and then half a year on leave. Those long periods of freedom ended when he transferred to the shipyards and port. However, he no longer has any yearning to go back to sea.

“It was a wonderful time, but I don’t have any desire to return to it. In addition to the long holidays, another change I had to get used to was the cold, as I’d spent ten years getting used to life aboard cruisers.”
Ship communities are always very close-knit, as you are with the same people around the clock.
“You never experience those kinds of workplaces on land. It’s relatively easy to work together on a ship, as everyone knows their job. No one ever comes to tell you that you have to do this or that. You know what you have to do. Things are organised differently at the port. It’s not any better or worse, just different.”

Ships used to be smaller

It was agreed that this interview would cover the changes that have taken place in maritime transport and at ports during Kallio’s career. He says there are lot of things that haven’t changed.

“Take, for instance, the bridges of new ships entering service – they’re exactly the same as they were 30 years ago. They have exactly the same equipment. If you ask the captain what’s changed, the answer will be that the computer processors are now more powerful,” says Kallio.

The basic concept at port has also remained unchanged.

“At the port, our task is to ensure safety, build quays, keep the infrastructure and port area in good working order, clear away snow and moor ships. It doesn’t change.”

When they arrive in port, ships are stevedored just as they always were: containers are lifted and trailers are pulled.

“We did the same things 30 years ago. Our equipment is practically the same, maybe a bit larger and more powerful, but still running on the same diesel fuel. Of course, electricity and other fuels will be introduced over the coming years – including for ship engines – but the basics haven’t changed that much.”

Kallio reminds us that autonomous, self-loading ships are still in the distant future. For example, the unmanned ships that are currently being tested in Norway are still manned and sail only short distances being two quays.

“It’s completely different when you head out to sea with dozens of port visits to make in the space of a week. The remote pilotage trials haven’t gotten off to a terribly good start either.”

Digitalisation has streamlined cargo movements

“All the cargo data is in digital format, which means there’s no need to leaf through papers at every turn, which would slow things down. This will be further developed,” says Kallio.

Both the departure and destination ports of the cargo ships visiting Helsinki have also remained practically the same over the decades. However, one thing has changed.

“The only visible change is that the size of the ships has increased enormously. They’ve doubled in size in 15 years, but they’re still loaded in the same way as before,” says Kallio.