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Table 2 Overview of the topics emerged in the interviews

From: Maritime supply chain sustainability: South-East Finland case study

Types of handled cargo

Network of organizations

Importance of wood industry. Metal products. Project transportation.

Logistics operators, forwarders, carriers, exporters, importers. Road and rail transports are important in the hinterland operations.

Intermodal operations

Highway E18

Transport selection is a focal part of business. Intermodality is an important factor towards higher sustainability of transport chains (e.g., companies selecting larger share of railway transport over road in the total transport chain).

Important part of road infrastructure. Traffic flows well on this highway but lagging development of the roads connecting from inland to this highway (e.g., highways number 15 and 26) are creating bottlenecks in the road freight transportation.

Finland and Russia

Current situation

Challenges due to fading transit traffic through Finland to Russia. Sanctions and counter sanctions between EU and Russia. Sanctions had less impact on the traffic in HaminaKotka, but the succeeding collapse in Russian rouble’s value severely diminished cargo between these countries. Russia is shifting from using transit countries to own ports. Future of freight traffic is uncertain, but potential is recognized to exist.

Fierce competition has driven prices down, and carriers’ offerings are pretty much on par. Due to imbalance of imports and exports (much more exports) in HaminaKotka, large amounts of empty containers are delivered to the port (up to 40 thousand empty containers monthly). Maritime regulations are not having a significant impact to competition, although they are increasing the prices for all the carriers.

Sustainability

Future directions

Transport mode selection between sea, road and rail is one of the most important factors for environmental sustainability of transport chains. Alternative fuels (LNG, electricity) are not widely implemented in road traffic, but electricity is seen as promising option for the numerous short (10-100 km) transportations taking place in HaminaKotka region. High Capacity Transports (HCT) are increasingly utilized, and through load size optimization, they contribute to the environmental sustainability of operations. Sustainability is expected to be driven by larger actors, who in turn demand sustainability form their smaller partners. Social sustainability of the operations is high, since the Finnish laws and regulations are comprehensive and strictly monitored in these matters.

Adopt higher degree of digitalization to shift to more efficient and transparent business practices. Sustainable development strategies are becoming more important. Focus more on value-adding activities in logistics.