Professor Ulla Tapaninen's blog
“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?
The most important decision for shipping companies right now is what the fuel they will be using will cost in five years. My phone has been ringing lately as the transport sector ponders how shipping operations will change in the future due to tightening environmental regulations. But first, let’s get back to the basics: how … Continue reading How do shipping companies make a profitable business?
It would be easy to think that this exciting time in shipping companies is far behind. That big profits or losses can no longer be made in shipping business. But on the contrary, the shipping industry is still an industry that shows big profits and losses; and where business courage and foresight are rewarded. When … Continue reading The exciting world of maritime economics
Steveco's sales director Ville Kuitunen pointed out on LinkedIn last week that none of the ports owned by Finnish municipalities load or urload ships in the night shift. When I read academic studies on port efficiency, almost all the studies are about container ports, and usually the speed of container handling. This is a narrow … Continue reading Port efficiency
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