Page 76 - Port of Kokkola Handbook & Directory

INDuSTRY & COMMERCEagreement is an extension of a previous three-year long contract.a raw material in the manufacture of steel because of its high iron content. Further processing has become profitable due to the rapid rise in market prices for steel in recent years. There are stocks of some 8 million tons of iron oxide at the Siilinjärvi plant and 200,000 additional tons are produced annually. Lasse Oksanen, Operative Director of Yara Finland, considers it extremely positive that this by-product, which was formerly considered worthless, can now be put to further use. The logistics solution chosen is the best possible in his opinion.chain that allows trains to make the trip from the Siilinjärvi plant to Kokkola and back in one day. Longer runs would require increased investment in railway rolling stock,” says Mr. Oksanen.The agreement comprises temporary storage and reloading of iron oxide from Yara’s Siilinjärvi plant at the port of Kokkola for shipments to China and will be in effect until 2018. Iron oxide is hauled by rail from Siilinjärvi to Kokkola, where it is unloaded, stored temporarily and then reloaded in consignments of 65,000-75,000 tons onto Panamax- class vessels. Iron oxide is transported to Kokkola on three daily non-stop trains with a combined capacity of around 5,000 tons. Cargoes are shipped seasonally, between May and December at intervals of two to three weeks.Together with VR Transpoint, Rauanheimo has developed new solutions for Yara’s products. It uses tailor-made containers and forklift trucks designed especially for this purpose.Iron oxide is a by-product of the sulphuric acid industry and used as“We have long traditions of co- operation with Port of Kokkola and Rauanheimo. They provide us with a functional and cost-efficient logisticsYara Suomi, which is part of the Norwegian group Yara International ASA, sells and markets multi-nutrient fertilisers to agriculture. The company’s products are also used in industry and environmental protection and it has operated under the name Yara since 2008. It was previously known as Kemira GrowHow. l74 PORT OF KOKKOLA HANDBOOK & DIRECTORY