According to the Statistics Finland, freight traffic by the Saimaa Canal amounted to 1.33 mn tons during 2021, up 3.9% year-on-year.
1,103 cargo vessels transited the Canal during the period under report, up 1.8% year-on-year. 600 of them, or 54.4% of the total number of foreign (that is, non-Finnish) vessels were flying the Russian flag, down 0.7% year-on-year.
The main commodity transported was timber and logs, which grew by 1.2% up to 536.8 thousand tons. Cement was up 3.9% to more than 375 thousand tons, and sawn goods up 56.1% to 76.1 thousand tons.
Fertilizers increased by 14.7% up to 144.7 thousand tons, coal by 35.1% up to 28.1 thousand tons, and metal surged 3.9-fold up to 15.2 thousand tons.
Paper declined by 19.2%, chemicals by 35.2%, and pulp by 23.2%.