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The Finnish transit port of Kotka – located in the town of the same name on the shore of the Gulf of Finland 280 kilometers from St. Petersburg, 150 kilometers from Helsinki and 50 kilometers from the Russian-Finnish border – plays a prominent role in trade between the CIS and the rest of the world.
Ever since the launch of AsstrA’s St. Petersburg office in 2001, the team has been seeing strong demand for transportation to / from Finland. In August 2020, the global transport and logistics provider opened a Finnish representative office in Kotka.
Anton Kanev
“Kotka is a historically popular transport center in the south of Finland. Our presence there will help us oversee imports from both sides: in the country of loading and in the country of unloading,” says Anton Kanev, AsstrA St. Petersburg Branch Manager.
Finland’s top three export products are industrial equipment such as parts, components, and assemblies, pulp and paper industry products, and resources like fuels, oils, and bituminous substances. Kotka is Finland’s top port for wood product exports and is one of country’s largest and busiest cargo ports in terms of transit traffic.
There are a number of port facilities in Kotka. Bulk and liquid cargo, including chemicals, are transshipped at the 300-hectare Mussalo facility. The Hietanen facility houses a truck terminal that accommodates up to 150,000 vehicles per year. The Halla and Puolanlaituri berths receive Polish cargo ships. There are sea shipping routes from Kotka to more than 20 destinations around the world.
Anna Pokka
“The AsstrA team is faced with the task of developing a range of offerings for the Finnish market. We want to provide clients with comprehensive shipping services for routes from Finland to the CIS. Currently we are able to provide container railway transportation from the CIS to Finland, as well as road and sea transportation from Asia and the Americas with transshipment in Finnish ports. We also provide multimodal services with Finland as a transit country and customs services,” adds Anna Pokka, AsstrA Finland Project Manager.