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Dr. Olli-Pekka Hilmola
1. LUT University, Kouvola Unit, Prikaatintie 9, FIN-45100 Kouvola, Finland

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0 Supply Chain Management
0 Sustainability
0 System Dynamics
0 Transportation
0 Simulation

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Transportation
Simulation
Supply Chain Management
System Dynamics
Sustainability

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Short Biography

PhD Olli-Pekka Hilmola is a Professor at LUT University, in Kouvola, Finland. He is affiliated with numerous international journals through editorial boards, including Industrial Management and Data Systems, Decision Support Systems, and Expert Systems with Applications. Dr. Hilmola has published around 180 refereed journal manuscripts. He is currently serving as Visiting Professor in Taltech/EMERA, Estonia.

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Journal article
Published: 06 August 2021 in Journal of Risk and Financial Management
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Since the inauguration of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has been under pressure from competing tokens. As Bitcoin is a public open ledger blockchain coin, it has its weaknesses in privacy and anonymity. In the recent decade numerous coins have been initiated as privacy coins, which try to tackle these weaknesses. This research compares mostly mature privacy coins to Bitcoin, and comparison is made from a price perspective. It seems that Bitcoin is leading privacy coins in price terms, and correlation is typically high and positive. From the earlier crypto market peak of 2017–18, only a very small number of coins are showing positive returns in 2021. It is typical that many privacy coins have lost substantial amounts of their value (ranging 80–90%) or that they do not exist anymore at all. Only Horizen and Monero have shown long-term sustainability in their value; however, their price changes follow that of Bitcoin very closely. The role of privacy coins in the future remains as an open issue.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. On Prices of Privacy Coins and Bitcoin. Journal of Risk and Financial Management 2021, 14, 361 .

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. On Prices of Privacy Coins and Bitcoin. Journal of Risk and Financial Management. 2021; 14 (8):361.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2021. "On Prices of Privacy Coins and Bitcoin." Journal of Risk and Financial Management 14, no. 8: 361.

Journal article
Published: 22 March 2021 in Logistics
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For decades, trade between Europe and China has grown consistently, which has resulted in increased container transportation volumes. Such transportation has been dominated by sea-based options. However, over the years, an air-based mode of transport was developed, while it has lately become increasingly popular to use railways utilizing the Trans-Siberian land bridge. This latter approach boomed amid the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. However, the railway container boom in Eurasia has deeper roots than just the COVID-19 era. As is illustrated in this research work, international trade containers (trade between Russia and other countries, mostly China) and transit containers (e.g., serving the Chinese–EU route) were already showing some significance as early as 2003–2004. In 2020, their volume was already measured in the millions, regardless of the railway data source being used. This is well above the starting period in the 1980s and 1990s, when total annual volumes were around 0.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Container capacity has developed over the years, first being used for international trade and only lately for transit. As a preliminary comparison to air freight, the growth rate was roughly double that in the two-decade observation period.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Weidong Li; Yulia Panova. Development Status and Future Trends for Eurasian Container Land Bridge Transport. Logistics 2021, 5, 18 .

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Weidong Li, Yulia Panova. Development Status and Future Trends for Eurasian Container Land Bridge Transport. Logistics. 2021; 5 (1):18.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Weidong Li; Yulia Panova. 2021. "Development Status and Future Trends for Eurasian Container Land Bridge Transport." Logistics 5, no. 1: 18.

Conference paper
Published: 12 March 2021 in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
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For the purposes of project, “Taltech in the Caspian Sea Region”, was in the end of 2019 initiated distance learning course. Topic was maritime logistics and lectures were recorded as well as edited either at the site of Taltech (lecturing room) or at office. Lectures combined interactive parts with students (examples and assignments were part of lecturing module). Purpose of distance course was to deliver it in prompt fashion and with high quality for distant student audience. We report this as a qualitative case study. Research illustrates what kind of tools and approaches were felt best suited to deliver course. It is essential that both technical tools of distance courses as well as teachers and materials are ready and serving demanding digital lecturing task. Collaboration between members of project group is also important, and the professional level as well as experience of all actors. Giving distance education in short notice, it is required that organization is having basic readiness. Technical issues are always something, which require attention (software and purchased hardware become old, while new options arise). Given course had implications on in-service program development, which is also described in here.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Riina Palu; Andres Tolli. Experiences from Maritime Logistics Distance Learning Course. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 2021, 1328, 577 -585.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Riina Palu, Andres Tolli. Experiences from Maritime Logistics Distance Learning Course. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 2021; 1328 ():577-585.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Riina Palu; Andres Tolli. 2021. "Experiences from Maritime Logistics Distance Learning Course." Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 1328, no. : 577-585.

Journal article
Published: 09 October 2020 in Sustainability
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From early 2020 onwards, the world has been going through an unprecedented wave of lockdowns, shutdowns, and preventive measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is evident that these have been harmful for tourism, passenger transport, and the service sector in general. However, less is known regarding the implications for manufacturing and logistics, which is the purpose of this research. We concentrate on reporting survey findings from Northern Europe, and mostly from Finland. Based on trade accounts, it is evident that Covid-19 has had significant impacts on Finnish import and export. However, in survey responses, companies report that they have mostly been able to serve customers in a good fashion, and the pandemic has increased transportation costs only moderately. Inventories might experience an increase due to the virus, however, in the longer term they will likely remain at the earlier levels (or slightly increase). Companies are mostly afraid of the effects of the second wave of the epidemic, and are also already thinking about the long-term issues with transportation modes used together with supply chain dependencies. For example, the Chinese and, in part, Russian, markets are increasingly being served by railways during the current decade. For some companies (especially small and medium-sized ones) and foreign trade markets, however, the epidemic era has been very harmful. Therefore, as a conclusion we argue that the pandemic is causing rather asymmetrical impacts on manufacturing and logistics.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Oskari Lähdeaho; Ville Henttu; Per Hilletofth. Covid-19 Pandemic: Early Implications for North European Manufacturing and Logistics. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8315 .

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Oskari Lähdeaho, Ville Henttu, Per Hilletofth. Covid-19 Pandemic: Early Implications for North European Manufacturing and Logistics. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (20):8315.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Oskari Lähdeaho; Ville Henttu; Per Hilletofth. 2020. "Covid-19 Pandemic: Early Implications for North European Manufacturing and Logistics." Sustainability 12, no. 20: 8315.

Journal article
Published: 02 October 2020 in Procedia Computer Science
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Logistics and supply chain management are critical for economic sustainability. In this research, we aim to identify the most critical factors to logistics and supply chain performance for a small open economy by reporting survey results from Estonian manufacturing, trading and logistics service companies. By comparing survey results from 2012 and 2018, we also analyze how these critical factors may have changed during the last years. In the survey, the significance of competitiveness, functionality of logistics, and information and communication technologies (ICT) among others were included. The results indicate that the importance of factors such as purchasing, demand forecasting and operations planning have increased. Overall, purchasing and demand forecasting are considered more important than other factors. Surprisingly, logistics was considered less vital in 2018 than in 2012. Most of the current challenges in companies arise from demand management (forecasting and planning), increasing labour costs and regulatory changes. On ICT side change has been from traditional communications more towards digital, and especially using specific platforms (portals, intranet/extranet).

ACS Style

Ain Kiisler; Tomi Solakivi; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Supply Chain and ICT Issues of Estonia: Survey Findings. Procedia Computer Science 2020, 176, 828 -837.

AMA Style

Ain Kiisler, Tomi Solakivi, Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Supply Chain and ICT Issues of Estonia: Survey Findings. Procedia Computer Science. 2020; 176 ():828-837.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ain Kiisler; Tomi Solakivi; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2020. "Supply Chain and ICT Issues of Estonia: Survey Findings." Procedia Computer Science 176, no. : 828-837.

Journal article
Published: 21 May 2020 in Sustainability
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Transportation is an important factor affecting the balance of regional economic pattern. The construction of high-speed railway enhances the mobility of population, capital, technology and information resources between urban and rural areas. Will it further affect the income gap between urban and rural areas? Based on the nonlinear time-varying factor model, this paper analyzes the convergence of urban-rural income gap with the angle of high-speed railway. After rejecting the assumption of overall convergence in the traditional four economic regions, three convergence clubs of urban-rural income gap were found. For these ordered logit regression model is used to explore the initial factors that may affect the formation of “convergence club”. Empirical results show that the construction of High-speed railway has effectively narrows the urban-rural income gap in China, but it is not the cause of the formation of the three convergence clubs. The convergence effect of High-speed railway on the urban-rural income gap in China is still relatively weak.

ACS Style

Weidong Li; Xuefang Wang; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Does High-Speed Railway Influence Convergence of Urban-Rural Income Gap in China? Sustainability 2020, 12, 4236 .

AMA Style

Weidong Li, Xuefang Wang, Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Does High-Speed Railway Influence Convergence of Urban-Rural Income Gap in China? Sustainability. 2020; 12 (10):4236.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weidong Li; Xuefang Wang; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2020. "Does High-Speed Railway Influence Convergence of Urban-Rural Income Gap in China?" Sustainability 12, no. 10: 4236.

Journal article
Published: 01 April 2020 in Transport and Telecommunication Journal
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Research is based on wholesale and distribution operations of real-life case company, and in this setting, the most critical part of company’s supply chain is the inventory replenishment to warehouse (Distribution Center) as well as fulfilling and delivering customers’ orders. Different Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)-based models have been considered (Reorder Point, Reorder Point with pipeline on order inventory, and “pulse train”). Simulation system evaluates annual total logistics costs. Results show that in an environment, where local warehouse inventory levels are rather high and replenishment order quantity is rather small, it is important have frequent shipments divided in suitable intervals. In simulation model, this could be done e.g. with the use of “pulse train” function or incorporating pipeline on order inventory in order decision. The research findings are valid for a small-scale supply chain servicing small and geographically limited markets with clients assuming high customer service levels (e.g. 24-hours lead time). For bigger markets, the cross-docking based supply chain models are worth considering in simulations.

ACS Style

Ain Kiisler; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Modelling Wholesale Company’s Supply Chain Using System Dynamics. Transport and Telecommunication Journal 2020, 21, 149 -158.

AMA Style

Ain Kiisler, Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Modelling Wholesale Company’s Supply Chain Using System Dynamics. Transport and Telecommunication Journal. 2020; 21 (2):149-158.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ain Kiisler; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2020. "Modelling Wholesale Company’s Supply Chain Using System Dynamics." Transport and Telecommunication Journal 21, no. 2: 149-158.

Journal article
Published: 13 March 2020 in Expert Systems with Applications: X
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In this study is examined the role of inventories and assets in the financial and shareholder value creation of a company. Research builds several Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models (staged), and tests their connections with each other. Research concerns publicly traded manufacturing and trade companies of Finland and three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) during the years 2010–2018. Logical and in two stages proceeding DEA efficiency model gets statistical significance, and there is support that inventory and asset related measures will lead to revenue, profits and cash flow, which together will eventually result in higher shareholder value (like stated in operations and supply chain management theories such as theory of constraints). However, this finding has weakness as explanation power is low, and there is a lot of noise. It could also be so that inventories and assets are part of bunch of other inputs, which together directly create shareholder value. Therefore, it remains as an open question whether inventory and assets should be managed through classical and logical stages in companies through organization hierarchy, or if inventory and assets should be just a part of group of factors, which together aim to increase shareholder value.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Role of inventory and assets in shareholder value creation. Expert Systems with Applications: X 2020, 5, 100027 .

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Role of inventory and assets in shareholder value creation. Expert Systems with Applications: X. 2020; 5 ():100027.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2020. "Role of inventory and assets in shareholder value creation." Expert Systems with Applications: X 5, no. : 100027.

Journal article
Published: 14 November 2019 in Promet - Traffic&Transportation
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High-speed railway (HSR) network building was initiated in China in the early 2000s, and full-scale construction began several years later as a larger use phase started in 2008. Thereafter, the expansion speed has been impressive. Network investment could be considered as a success, if evaluating the amount of high-speed railway usage already during the expansion phase. The diffusion models built in this research show that expansion in the network and growth of the passengers will continue at least until the following decade. The performance is evaluated in terms of DEA efficiency model. It is shown that efficiency started from very low levels, but it has been increasing together with the expansion of HSR network. Currently, the efficiency is near the level of the leading European High-speed (HS) countries (Germany and France). However, it is projected with linear model and by Bass diffusion models that the efficiency will reach Japanese and South Korean standards in the next decade. A somewhat larger network length with smaller relative growth of passengers, but with a higher growth of passenger-km seems to be able to reach even the frontier efficiency.

ACS Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Jianhong Wu. Chinese High-speed Railway: Efficiency Comparison and the Future. Promet - Traffic&Transportation 2019, 31, 693 -702.

AMA Style

Weidong Li, Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Jianhong Wu. Chinese High-speed Railway: Efficiency Comparison and the Future. Promet - Traffic&Transportation. 2019; 31 (6):693-702.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Jianhong Wu. 2019. "Chinese High-speed Railway: Efficiency Comparison and the Future." Promet - Traffic&Transportation 31, no. 6: 693-702.

Journal article
Published: 01 June 2019 in Transport and Telecommunication Journal
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In the late 2013 One Belt and One Road (OBOR) was announced in Chinese international political speeches. Thereafter, this significant investment program started and research works were also initiated. We found that first journal publications (in English) appeared in 2016, and thereafter their amounts have increased, especially in 2018. Most of the contributing authors are China based or Chinese scholars living in abroad. Highest citations amounts are for the works published in the first analysis year, however, some differences exist between Scopus and Web of Science citation service amounts. Ten highest cited works account most of the citations on analysed 66 articles. Literature analysis uses tag cloud and network analysis to identify and analyse what are the most used references of these OBOR works. There does not exist any clear key reference among articles, but most used references form a network among analysed research work citations. This further verifies that OBOR program is significantly sized in topics covered, and it is still difficult to define its central or key area.

ACS Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. One Belt And One Road: Literature Analysis. Transport and Telecommunication Journal 2019, 20, 260 -268.

AMA Style

Weidong Li, Olli-Pekka Hilmola. One Belt And One Road: Literature Analysis. Transport and Telecommunication Journal. 2019; 20 (3):260-268.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2019. "One Belt And One Road: Literature Analysis." Transport and Telecommunication Journal 20, no. 3: 260-268.

Journal article
Published: 08 April 2019 in Sustainability
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In recent years, there has been a lot of attention paid to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to invest in better connecting China, South-East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. As countries that share the same continent, and are in many cases without proper sea connection (landlocked), the key mode of long-distance transportation is railways. However, numerous countries have different levels of past investments, labor productivity, transportation profile, and culture surrounding railways, and all of this leads to differences in overall efficiency. In this research, we apply well established and widely used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the longitudinal efficiency of railway operations. This is the first time such an analysis is completed on the Belt and Road member countries. Efficiency itself hardly improved at all during the examination period, whether in passenger and freight or just freight transports. China itself represents an important benchmark for many countries, as its efficiency is all the time highest possible. In the network benchmarking analysis, it was shown that China, Estonia, Latvia, and Israel are often proposed benchmarks for the others to increase their efficiency in the future. From efficiency development perspective, Chinese railway sector is beneficial and more balanced to be benchmarked as compared to other significantly sized railway countries, like India or Russia.

ACS Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Belt and Road Initiative and Railway Sector Efficiency—Application of Networked Benchmarking Analysis. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2070 .

AMA Style

Weidong Li, Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Belt and Road Initiative and Railway Sector Efficiency—Application of Networked Benchmarking Analysis. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (7):2070.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2019. "Belt and Road Initiative and Railway Sector Efficiency—Application of Networked Benchmarking Analysis." Sustainability 11, no. 7: 2070.

Journal article
Published: 13 March 2019 in Sustainability
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Nowadays, China dominates logistics volumes, and its container logistics is associated with the largest sea ports, such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Ningbo. However, China’s coastal line is long and contains numerous million-container-handling sea ports. Current leading sea ports are located mostly in the south or at the middle point of the coastal line. Volumes are rather concentrated in these few areas. Despite the fact that China’s vast population is well-spread throughout the coastal line, major cities are also located in the hinterlands. Apart from some regions (e.g., the Pearl and the Yangtze River Delta) where there are many cities that are very close to each other, distances between cities are rather long in general. Therefore, this research examines the CO2 emission reduction potential of using a larger number of sea ports (such as distribution hubs), as well as the interaction of these with analytically chosen dry ports. Results of the hypothetical country level container transportation model, using linear integer programming concerning 51 cities (largest hinterland and container sea port cities), showed that better and more equal use of sea ports serving the major cities will result in considerable emission reductions. This is the case, even if hinterland transport is completely based on road transports. However, in a situation where the dry port structure with railways is further applied, the results showed that it should be concentrated on a few hinterland points first, but also assure that most remote, million-people city locations get priority for the railway.

ACS Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Yulia Panova. Container Sea Ports and Dry Ports: Future CO2 Emission Reduction Potential in China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1515 .

AMA Style

Weidong Li, Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Yulia Panova. Container Sea Ports and Dry Ports: Future CO2 Emission Reduction Potential in China. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (6):1515.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weidong Li; Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Yulia Panova. 2019. "Container Sea Ports and Dry Ports: Future CO2 Emission Reduction Potential in China." Sustainability 11, no. 6: 1515.

Journal article
Published: 01 February 2019 in Transport and Telecommunication Journal
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In this research is being analyzed trade relationship and unitized maritime cargo between Germany and Finland. Focus in longitudinal analysis (2001-2017) is on maritime transport, and particularly within the development of different Finnish sea ports in unitized German cargo handling. Trade has been significantly growing over the decades and is on record highs in the most recent year (2017). Germany has also become largest trade partner of Finland. However, after 2003 trade bas been on growing deficit path, and is currently more than one billion deficits for Finland. Rather surprisingly, unitized cargo flows are not growing as much as trade suggests. Still best years are from time before Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Some sea ports in Southwest of Finland have been on clear declining path, while largest sea ports could be considered as somehow sustaining in volumes. Growth is on some smaller and mid-sized sea ports, which have direct regional need for German trade. Hinterland transports through Baltic States must have taken share of direct maritime transports from Finnish sea ports.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Andres Tolli. Growing Trade, But Slowing Unitized Short Sea Shipping: Analysing Finland and Germany. Transport and Telecommunication Journal 2019, 20, 82 -91.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Andres Tolli. Growing Trade, But Slowing Unitized Short Sea Shipping: Analysing Finland and Germany. Transport and Telecommunication Journal. 2019; 20 (1):82-91.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola; Andres Tolli. 2019. "Growing Trade, But Slowing Unitized Short Sea Shipping: Analysing Finland and Germany." Transport and Telecommunication Journal 20, no. 1: 82-91.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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Different future scenarios can be evaluated using computer simulation. This chapter illustrates that changes in the northern Baltic Sea region due to sulphur regulation were driven by speed and other cost items rather than purely freight cost. If the cargo has some value, price erosion and cost of inventory holding represent significant financial burdens in supply chains. These short lead time smart solutions do not experience significant problems if CO2 emissions are put under some payment scheme (since distances are not excessive, even if trucks are used). However, for the global 2020 change and within continental supply chains, speed is not alone the answer. Air freight supply chains emit so much CO2 that payment schemes would have a significant impact upon these chains. An alternative would be to use more hinterland transport (railway) between Asia and Europe and this seems to be a lucrative suggestion—it emits low levels and is also relatively fast since it also reduces total costs. Container shipping supply chains are in a difficult position since their lead time is already high and causes harm to cargo owners. This chapter also incorporates a simulation model to assess sulphur regulation cost effects, in which different factors can be taken into account to analyse what the impacts might be on freight prices.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Simulation of Different Supply Chain Strategies. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 113 -134.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Simulation of Different Supply Chain Strategies. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():113-134.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "Simulation of Different Supply Chain Strategies." The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 113-134.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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Transportation logistics and supply chains in general are facing increasing environmental demands. It could be argued that the sector is coming late to the demands for reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) and environmental emissions. For a long time it was enough for global policies that trade and economies grew. This is no longer the case. The transportation sector is responsible for a significant amount of emissions, and in Europe, they are still on track for long-term growth. Most troubling among these modes of transportation is truck transportation. The main challenge in maritime supply chains is not the amount of CO2 emissions, but that of sulphur and nitrogen emissions, and the concentration of these emissions to a limited amount of major sea ports.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Introduction. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 1 -15.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Introduction. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():1-15.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "Introduction." The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 1-15.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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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.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Unitized Cargo: Growing Truck-Based Volumes at the Sea Ports of Estonia, Sweden and Finland. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 53 -72.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Unitized Cargo: Growing Truck-Based Volumes at the Sea Ports of Estonia, Sweden and Finland. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():53-72.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "Unitized Cargo: Growing Truck-Based Volumes at the Sea Ports of Estonia, Sweden and Finland." The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 53-72.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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Numerous logistics flow direction and warehousing surveys have been completed in Finland and Sweden during the period of 2010–2015. Surveys have been conducted with the largest companies in these countries (excluding banking, finance and the service sector). In 2015, Estonia’s largest companies were also included in these surveys. Based on these surveys, it could be concluded that the most typical transportation unit in companies is semi-trailer/trailer, followed by container, and other units. Companies did not see much change in the mode of transportation used: the surveys indicate that road transport will dominate in the future, followed by sea transport. Most of the companies indicated that tightening environmental legislation will increase their transportation costs and the survey of 2015 clearly showed that Finnish companies were most hurt by the implementation of strict sulphur regulation.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Longitudinal Survey Findings from Northern Europe. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 101 -111.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Longitudinal Survey Findings from Northern Europe. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():101-111.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "Longitudinal Survey Findings from Northern Europe." The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 101-111.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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It is necessary to review the operating and economic environment of Northern Europe in order to understand the implementation environment of the very low sulphur level. The economies of Estonia, Finland and Sweden are in general wealthy, and the two of them have shown clear medium-term growth in GDP. During the examination period, all three countries became net importers, even if the earlier situation was rather different, with constant trade surpluses (in Finland and Sweden). In overall trade, only Finland is showing some long-term weakness, whilst Sweden and Estonia are still experiencing steady growth. When tight restrictions on sulphur levels were implemented in 2015, oil prices were significantly declining, and this helped the region to avoid big cost increases. However, in 2017, oil prices started to show an upwards movement. It is clear that lower sulphur maritime diesel oil has a far higher price tag, and in 2017, its price increased at a higher rate than conventional maritime diesel oil.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. General Economic and Trade Environment. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 17 -34.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. General Economic and Trade Environment. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():17-34.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "General Economic and Trade Environment." The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 17-34.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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As the world turns further away from traditional fossil fuels, the business sector is taking significant steps into the great unknown. The forthcoming regulation change in sulphur levels in 2020 represents one of these challenges. Adaptation in Northern Europe to similar regulations in 2015 was rather mixed among shipping businesses and maritime-based supply chains. As an immediate response, shipping companies either started to use low-sulphur diesel oil or invested in scrubbers. However, as a long-term response, LNG is seen as promising new fuel, and new ships are already in use or being ordered by companies. For supply chains, this change in 2015 meant that traditional routes were reconsidered and so was the extent to which different transportation modes were used in these chains. It seems that road transportation was the winner in unitized transport and on the whole shorter shipping routes have become more favoured.

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Conclusions. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 135 -140.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Conclusions. The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():135-140.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "Conclusions." The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 135-140.

Chapter
Published: 11 September 2018 in The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains
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Within the European map, Finland is a little like an island; the country is in peninsula position within the northern Baltic Sea. Therefore, foreign transportation flows are tied to the sea. In the Baltic Sea region, Finland’s most important foreign destinations of unitized cargo (containers, semi-trailers and trucks) are the sea ports of Germany, Sweden and Estonia. Previously, Germany and Sweden were clearly dominating in terms of cargo flows. However, Estonia has continuously grown (and continues to do so) and in 2015 it reached the same levels of volumes with Sweden. There are number of reasons and long-term drivers that make the Estonian route attractive, but its ability to match Swedish volumes in 2015 was mostly enabled by changes in environmental legislation. During 2010 and 2015, the Baltic Sea region faced sulphur regulation changes with companies required to use shipping fuel with a much lower sulphur content. In regression models, both of these years are significant in explaining freight volume change (growth in Estonia and decline in Sweden), however, 2015 in particular was clearly a game changer (with decline even in the German route).

ACS Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Was Sulphur Regulation the Reason for Growth of Unitized Cargo Between Finland and Estonia? The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains 2018, 35 -51.

AMA Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. Was Sulphur Regulation the Reason for Growth of Unitized Cargo Between Finland and Estonia? The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains. 2018; ():35-51.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olli-Pekka Hilmola. 2018. "Was Sulphur Regulation the Reason for Growth of Unitized Cargo Between Finland and Estonia?" The Sulphur Cap in Maritime Supply Chains , no. : 35-51.