Analyzing reasons for shortage of export containers in Finland

Abstract

There is an old saying that Finland is an island. This statement is still very true as about 80 percent of the Finnish foreign trade takes place by sea. In order to make a container shipment an empty container is required which – if not available – needs to be repositioned to the export location. The repositioning helps to absorb the transport imbalance by moving empty containers from surplus to deficit areas. The aim of this thesis is to find and analyze reasons to the shortage of export containers in Finland, propose a solution to the situation and to raise awareness of other emerging risks. The research is an action research where the primary sources of information were interviews, personal knowledge and observation. Secondary sources include online articles, database and books. The theoretical part discusses how the market influences the shipping industry and what risk mitigation actions the shipping industry has taken in order to run a successful business. The research shows that there was a huge dip in export container availability in the second quarter in 2015 but the situation is in the third quarter already improved to feeble but under control. The key reason to the absence of export containers is the decay of import volumes to Russia. Five future emerging risks for container shipments to and from Finland were identified.