Hanko, Helsinki, Kotka – Bilbao

Due to ongoing pilot service disruptions in Belgium and increasing delays affecting vessels scheduled to call at Antwerp, we regret to inform you that Finneco 2 will no longer call Antwerp.

Instead, all cargo destined for Antwerp will be discharged in Zeebrugge.

This decision has been taken to mitigate further schedule delays resulting from pilot service constraints and to ensure the most reliable cargo discharge and availability timeline possible.

The updated Finneco 2 schedule is as follows:

• Kotka: ETA 09/07 14:00
• Gdynia: 10/07 from 16:00 to 18:00
• Antwerp: CANCELLED
• Zeebrugge: 13/07 from 06:00 to 22:00
• Sheerness: 14/07 from 00:00 to 14:00
• Zeebrugge: 15/07 from 06:00 to 16/07 at 02:00
• Bilbao: 18/07 from 08:00 to 20:00

Due to the ongoing disruption caused by the pilots taking their maximum statutory rest hours, our vessel schedules continue to be significantly impacted.

To date, more than 100 vessels have already been affected.

For the Finneco 2 Northbound voyage, we are currently considering cancelling this week’s Antwerp call (scheduled for Thursday,July 2nd) and routing all export cargo via Zeebrugge instead.

This measure is intended to minimize service disruption for our customers while protecting the long-term schedule integrity of the service.

At present, operations in Zeebrugge have been less affected than those in Antwerp.

Should this decision be confirmed, export cargo can be delivered to Zeebrugge (Thursday closing) instead of Antwerp.

However, as further discussions between the political authorities and the pilots’ representatives are scheduled for this afternoon, we remain hopeful that a workable solution will be reached, allowing operations to return to normal as soon as possible.

For this reason, a final decision whether to cancel or maintain the Antwerp port call will be made tomorrow morning, based on the outcome of today’s meeting between parties.

To provide you with as much flexibility as possible, we would already like to inform you that, if you are planning to deliver export cargo for shipment during today or tomorrow, you may choose to deliver your cargo to Zeebrugge instead of Antwerp.

Should the Antwerp call ultimately be cancelled, cargo delivered to Zeebrugge will be shipped as planned, ensuring that your cargo can still depart from Belgium this week.

We will communicate our final decision tomorrow morning and keep you informed of any further developments.

The road tunnel in Vuosaari  is being renovated and the tunnel is not in use for the time being.

Please read more about the traffic arrangements.