The favorable development of the Finnish marine cluster intensified in 2017

The total revenue of maritime cluster operations in maritime cluster companies rose to € 13.6 billion in 2017. Growth compared to the previous year was 3.6%. The total number of employees in the maritime sector increased to 48,500.

The total turnover of marine industry companies was EUR 8.33 billion, up 3.6% on the previous year. In 2017, maritime industry companies employed a total of 29,000 people in their maritime business. In the marine industry, especially the good market situation for cruise ship construction was seen in the figures, which Tapio Karvonen, the Senior Research Scientist responsible for updating the economic indicators of the sea cluster, anticipated a year ago at the University of Turku Brahea. The combined net sales of the largest shipyards increased by almost 14% despite the continued weak market situation in the offshore business. Karvonen expects that in the 2018 figures, positive development will continue to be strong in shipbuilding, as net sales growth will begin to increase in network companies.

The net sales of the shipping and other marine-related industries grew by 4.3% to EUR 3.62 billion. The favorable development of the freight market is the most important factor. On the passenger side, the change has been much smaller. The combined net sales of port operations remained unchanged at EUR 1.38 billion. In the industry, the previous year 2016 was a period of strong growth in net sales, which was now followed by a year of stabilization. However, in ports, more cargo was handled in the previous year, as the volume of foreign sea transport increased by 4.1%. In port operations, the number of personnel decreased, while in other sectors the number increased.

The work on updating the cluster indicators has been carried out as part of the Maritime Information Portal project funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).
Source: Sea News