Unitized Cargo: Growing Truck-Based Volumes at the Sea Ports of Estonia, Sweden and Finland

Using trucks in hinterland transportation has a long tradition in Europe. Typically, in a cross-border context, trucks accompanied by a semi-trailer unit are the most commonly used. All northern Baltic Sea countries, such as Finland, Sweden and the three Baltic States rely on these as part of large-scale in European supply chains (after sea port handling volumes): (in tons) or international railway volumes hardly grew. However, trucks accompanied by semi-trailer units have continued to grow. This is mostly seen in the number of truck handling volumes at the sea ports of Estonia, Sweden and Finland. Growth has been strong for the truck and trailer combination—this means that shorter sea journeys have been favoured. In the long-term, trucking units show even better growth than containers, which have experienced some growing pains.