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PORTS OF DESTINATION OF THE REGULAR SERVICES
QUAYSLength (m)
Safe drafts:
Cranes:
Conveyors:
Warehouses:
PORT OF KOKKOLA - IMPROVED COMPETITIVENESSIn the course of the last fifteen years the Port of Kokkola has invested heavily in the infrastructure of the port, as well as in new warehouses, cranes and conveyor systems. As a result of these investments the traffic through the port has increased at an annual rate of 1 million tons, counting from the beginning of the investment period. In practice, the Port of Kokkola has created a new harbour, the Deep Port, in addition to the General Port. As a consequence of this, the main traffic streams have moved to the Deep Port. The business and utilization concept of the Deep Port is basically very simple: to handle dry bulk commodities efficiently. Evidence of this efficiency and the flexibility of the port operations is the fast loading of a 103.000 DWT vessel. In Kokkola this can be accomplished in two days. The loading speed reaches 40.000 tons / 24 hours (which probably, until now, has been the fastest loading rate in a Finnish port). In practice this means that every minute of the day the equivalent of two lorry loads are transferred into the ship's hold. Efficiency is, however, not an end in itself. It is a necessary requirement in order to minimize the costs for the customer, and is as such giving the port a competitive edge. The cost for a vessel of the above mentioned size exceeds 20 000 Euros per day. Every minute counts. The shorter the time that the vessel stays in port, the smaller is the final cost that the customer ultimately has to pay. Due to the efficient cargo handling equipment in the port, the handling of general cargo has also increased considerably. Especially the number of containers handled has grown significantly over the last few years. The Port is thus in excellent shape, and the capacity it can offer to its customers is today sufficient. One of Finland's deepest access channels leads into the Deep Port, as the most recent part of the Port is so aptly called. The access channel, which the Maritime Board of Finland dredges the last layers to reach the designed depth of 13.00 metres of safe draft, is almost finished. This is a prerequisite for any large vessel to call the port. However, large vessels are not an end in itself, nor is efficiency. The larger vessel lowers the transport cost by as much as 50 % compared to that of a smaller vessel. This in turn improves the competitiveness of the Port of Kokkola and places it in a favourable position when examining the transport routes. For several decades already the most important traffics have been generated by the transport needs of the local major industries located in the port area; they account for two thirds of the total traffic of 3.2 million tons. It is also natural that the largest share of this traffic does not move to other ports. The remaining one third of the traffic consists of a very interesting mix of traffic streams to and from practically all Finland, as well as the very topical Russian transit traffic, of which, until now, some 6.7 million tons have been shipped through Kokkola. The Port of Kokkola, VR - the Finnish State Railways, and the Russian October Railways co-operate very closely to ensure that the transit traffic and other cargo streams, such as dry bulk, general cargo and project cargoes, are transported safely and fast to the customer.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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