The gateway to northern Finland

STANDING at a latitude of 65 above the equator and just 200 km outside the Arctic Circle, the city and Port of Oulu would appear to be isolated in the far north. But, in fact, Oulu is only halfway between Helsinki and Finland´s border with Norway.

Oulu regards itself as the gateway to the north of Finland and the Lapland region. With about 120,000 inhabitants, Oulu is the country´s largest city north of Tampere and acts as the administrative capital of a vast and sparsely populated region.

Economically, the city of Oulu is thriving. Its paper industry is working at full capacity to meet demand, while its telecommunications sector has grown and developed on the back of a reputation for research and technological know-how.

The port, too, is seeing the benefits of this increased economic activity with an upturn in paper exports - which account for about 70 per cent of the port´s outbound trade - and an increase in chemical and other imports that provide some of the raw materials needed for paper making.

In addition, the port plans to develop its harbours further - both to provide extra capacity for existing traffic flows and to develop new ones - especially in the multimodal and transit trade sectors.

Centrepiece of the latest expansion programme has been the construction of a new chemical quay in the Nuottasaari Harbour at a cost of FIM 18 million. The new quay handles carbonate slurry imported from Norway for the paper industry.

Next up is a project backed by rail freight operator VR Cargo to build a new FIM 40 million compined terminal that will be used by trucks in a piggyback service to Helsinki.

Traffic through the Port of Oulu has been growing rapidly. In 1996 the port handled just 1.7 million tonnes, but by 1999 this figure had grown to a record 2.3 million tonnes of cargo - itself a rise of 13.2 per cent on the previous year. The port also saw 520 vessel calls in 1999 which was the third successive year of growth. Oulu remains Finland´s 12th biggest port as measured by cargo volume.

Container traffic increase

In line with a select few other ports in the Gulf of Bothnia, Oulu is witnessing a remarkable increase in its container traffic figures - up to 66 per cent in 1999. Throughput reached 14,775 teu in that year (8,165 teu outbound and 6610 teu inbound) and in year 2000 troughput reached 20, 066 teu (12 109 outbound and 7 957 inbound).

Optimistic predictions are supported by the fact that Oulu gained from the arrival of a new dedicated container feeder service in early 2000. Operating on a weekly basis to Hamburg and Bremerhaven, this service has attracted local unitised traffic that previously moved via ports in the south of Finland and is now able to take advantage of a lower cost, faster and more reliable outlet via Oulu.