Kotka (Finland)

Kotka is a port city in Kymenlaakso region (southern Finland). Ит ис located at the mouth of Kymi River (Gulf of Finland) анд has population ароунд 53,000. Downtown is at Kotkansaari island. Port Kotka is a major seaport that serves both domestic and foreign trade (mainly with Russia). The road distance to Helsinki (located to the north-east) is approx 135 km (83 mi) or ~1 hour 40 min drive.

Kotka was one of Finland's first heavily industrialized regions. City's current economy is based on sea shipping trade and wood processing factories (Kotkamills and Stora Enso / paper and pulp mills are city's larger employers).

As cruise port, Kotka is visited mainly by medium-sized ships, most of which leaving roundtrip from Germany and England. Port's largest cruise liner so far is the scheduled for 2019 (July 25) MSC Meraviglia (5400-passenger ship launched in 2017).

Ferries (Ro-Ro freight ships) connect Kotka to Russia (St Petersburg), Belgium (Antwerp, Zeebrugge), Germany (Travemunde-Lubeck), UK (Tilbury-London) and Spain (Bilbao). These routes are operated by FINNLINES.

Multi-Link Terminals in Port Kotka are managed (under long-term concession) by APM Terminals (30,75%, part of Global Ports Holding - world's largest cruise port operator) and Delo Group (30,75%, Russia's biggest freight transportation and logistics company). In 2020, Port Kotka received two STS (Ship-to-Shore Container Cranes by Ansaldo) relocated from Port Hamina. Kotka is also served by another STS plus an MHC (mobile harbour crane). All STS cranes are with lifting capacity 40 tonnes and an outreach 32 m. These cranes allow Kotka container terminal to handle larger boxships (with up to 14 TEUs wide decks).