Professor Ulla Tapaninen's blog
Recently, concerns have been raised on several occasions that the Green transition has been – if not cancelled – at least postponed. The UN climate conference in the spring was a disappointment for many. The United States has announced that it will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Finland has also reduced its obligation to … Continue reading Why is the shipping industry a frontrunner in the green transition?
Remote working, online shopping and the economic recession are challenging the competitiveness of cities. Cities need a strong business policy. Sometimes, a city's business policy might have been enough to designate an area in a plan that said "business district" and then hope that companies would come there. Today, competition is fierce, and cities must … Continue reading Cities must make room for new businesses
Although the risk of war in the Baltic Sea region is small, it is worth taking a lesson from Ukraine: diverse solutions help to keep supply chains working even in the crisis situations. The probability of a war in the Baltic Sea is low, but we should still prepare ourselves. Ukraine’s maritime traffic is very … Continue reading The Ukrainian war as a lesson for maritime transport
“Unfortunately, even if Trump were to lift all his tariffs, the damage has already been done.” In an interview published in the beginning this year, I discussed, among other things, the development of cargo volumes this year. I stated that my crystal ball is blurry, but there will be a lot of turbulence. However, even … Continue reading Everyone loses in a trade war – rebuilding supply chains will take years
US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of 10-50% on international trade, to which many countries are responding in kind. How will Trump's decision affect Baltic Sea shipping? The tariffs now imposed are at least 10% on foreign products entering the US, 20% on EU products and even more than 50% on Chinese products. The tariffs … Continue reading Trump will cause a crisis in the Baltic Sea shipping
The EU is tightening requirements for ports. Finland has twice the required port capacity, and the tonnage handled by ports is not increasing. The need for security of supply does not imply that more port capacity is needed either. Are some ports about to be shut down? The EU offers a carrot and a stick … Continue reading The EU is setting challenges for ports, how will they cope?
Finland's fairway dues are the highest in the Baltic Sea region. Furthermore, the allocation of fees is unfair: some ships arriving in our country pay very high fairway dues, while others manage with significantly lower fees regardless of the use of fairway maintenance services. Our neighboring country, Sweden, switched to an environmentally-based fairway dues decades … Continue reading Should Finland renew the amount and allocation of its fairway dues?
The Finnish economy is highly dependent on world trade. Due to its geographical location, maritime transport is our most significant form of transport – especially now that trade with Russia has decreased significantly. In 2024, our foreign trade was worth 230 billion euros, of which almost exactly half was imports and half was exports. Of … Continue reading How did the Finnish maritime transport volumes look like in 2024?
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