Page 11 - Port of Kokkola Handbook & Directory

“Our turnover and tonnage increases year-on-year and the number and size of vessels coming into the port is growing... we always aim to be at the front of the pack.”Pekka Nokso-Koivisto, Port Chairman“Kokkola has made tremendous progress over the last 15 years and, as a result, our tonnage throughput and turnover is increasing year-on- year,” says Port Chairman Pekka Nokso-Koivisto.be at the front of the pack. We are well ahead of our competitors because we believe that at Kokkola the customer is king. This has always been the case and will remain so as we move towards our exciting future.”“The port has made great progress and we look to the future with confidence. Thanks to investment sums available to us we will continue to improve on what we have to offer. Our turnover and tonnage increases year-on-year and the number and size of vessels coming into the port is growing.Mr. Nokso-Koivisto, a former city politician, enjoys his role as the port’s Chairman. “The position gives me a good overview of what is happening and a chance to be responsible for helping make things happen.“Competition among Baltic ports is very keen but we always aim to“It’s a privilege to do this and very satisfying to see so many great projects come to fruition.”mainly sawn timber, zinc and big bags – also known as jumbo bags, super sacks, bulk bags (or by their proper name of Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container, or FIBC).A scheduled container service links Kokkola-based customers to just about every major port across the world through regular scheduled connecting services via Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hamburg.“We are currently working on three, ten and twenty-year plans for the port. We are always looking to the future and what it can bring to us. For the last few years we have been carefully monitoring the world around us to anticipate who is doing what, looking at market trends and how companies in Finland are – or are not – working together in strong partnerships,” Mr. Witting continues.Kokkola. For example, if a Russian customer wants to us to handle all of its logistics from the Russian-Finnish border to the port, everything will be done by us.”“We have invested serious money into our port and have now renewed our business strategy, which is now finalised. We are about to make a bold move into new territory by handling much of the port’s business ourselves. We do not intend to take anyone’s traffic away from them, but for the first time we will provide other port operating companies with competition which does not currently exist atcalled the Silverstone Bay Company which will be dedicated to handling volume-based shipments through Kokkola.”He adds: “This plan, which has beenin the making for the last two years,allows us to have more influence overcargo flows passing through Kokkola.We have already created a wholly- the past and is also active at other 9owned company to manage this for usPORT OVERVIEWThe Silverstone Bay Company will not be offering stevedoring services to clients. Instead Port of Kokkola intends to engage a company that has undertaken casual work for the port inports in Finland. lHANDBOOK & DIRECTORY PORT OF KOKKOLA