Statistics Finland

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FI-00022 Statistics Finland

Inland waterway transport statistics provides information on the volume and performance of freight transport on EU inland waterway network. They are reported on the basis of the "territoriality principle" which means that each country reports the loading, unloading and movements of goods that take place on its national territory, irrespective of country of origins of undertakings or place of first loading and final unloading.

The full data provision obligation includes:

• annually: goods transport by type of goods, by nationality of vessels and by type of vessel as well as container transport by type of goods;
• quarterly: goods and container transport by nationality of vessels.

In addition, the legislation foresees voluntary annual data on vessel traffic. Voluntary annual data on the transport of dangerous goods and the number of accidents has been agreed with the reporting countries.

In summary, the statistics transmitted to Eurostat on inland waterway transport:

• Transport of goods (annual and quarterly mandatory data provision);
• Vessel traffic (annual voluntary data provision);
• Transport of dangerous goods (annual voluntary data provision)
• Number of accidents (annual voluntary data provision).

Country and NUTS codes

Territorial units like reporting country and regions for loading/unloading are coded according to NUTS classification for those units covered by NUTS Regulation and to ISO 3166 for the rest (e.g. territorial units outside EU). The used version of NUTS always corresponds to the version in use and no conversion to previous version is required. For instance, NUTS 2006 is used for 2008 to 2011 data, NUTS 2010 for 2012 to 2014 data, NUTS 2013 for 2015 to 2017 and NUTS 2016 for 2018 until next NUTS Regulation.

The level of detail is either NUTS0 – for reporting country – or NUTS2 (basic regions, 4 digits) – for regions. When using ISO 3166 and 4-digits level coding is required (e.g. for regions outside EU), the two-digit ISO code followed by “ZZ” is used.

Goods classification

Prior to 2007, the types of goods reported as being transported by inland waterways were those defined by NST/R (Standard Goods for Transport Statistics). In 2007 only, the type of goods has been reported according either to the NST-2000 classification or to the NST/R classification. From 2008 onwards, only the NST2007 classification is valid as set out in Commission Regulation 1304/2007 amending Regulation 1365/2006 with respect to the establishment of NST2007 as the unique classification for transported goods in certain transport modes.

Dangerous goods are classified according to the European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN). The classes are the following:

Class      Denomination

1             Explosive substances and articles
2             Gases
3             Flammable liquids
4.1          Flammable solids, self-reactive substances and solid desensitised explosives
4.2          Substances liable to spontaneous combustion
4.3          Substances which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases
5.1          Oxidising substances
5.2          Organic peroxides
6.1          Toxic substances
6.2          Infectious substances
7             Radioactive material
8             Corrosive substances
9             Miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles

The statistics on shipping traffic can be regarded as exhaustive and reliable. The statistics are based on detailed data collected on each vessel visit.

The definitions covering the main concepts used in this domain are included in Article 1 and Annex II to Regulation 425/2007. The main definitions are as follows:

Navigable inland waterway: A watercourse, no part of the sea, which by natural or man-made features is suitable for navigation, primarily by inland waterway vessels. This term covers navigable rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries.

Inland waterway vessel: A floating craft designed for the carriage of goods or public transport of passengers, which navigates predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.

Nationality of the vessel: The country in which the vessel is registered.

Inland waterways transport: Any movement of goods using inland waterways vessels, which is undertaken wholly or partly in navigable inland waterways.

National inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports of a national territory irrespective of the nationality of the vessel.

International inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports located in different national territories.

Transit inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport through a national territory between two ports both located in another national territory or national territories provided that in the total journey within the national territory there is no trans-shipment.

Inland movement: any movement of goods and/or passengers to and from inland ports connected by water routes which may be made navigable by one or more lock structures.

Inland waterways traffic: Any movement of a vessel on a given navigable inland waterway.

Types of vessels:

• Self-propelled barge. Any powered inland waterways freight vessel, other than self-propelled tanker barges.
• Barge not self-propelled. Any unpowered inland waterways freight vessel, other than not self-propelled tanker barges. This category includes towed, pushed and pushed-towed barges.
• Self-propelled tanker barge. A self-propelled barge intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
• Tanker barge not self-propelled. A barge not self-propelled intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
• Other goods carrying vessel. Any other known or unknown kind of inland waterways freight vessel intended for carrying goods not defined in the previous categories.
• Seagoing vessel. A vessel other than those, which navigate predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.

Containers: A freight container means an article of transport equipment:

1. of a permanent nature and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use;

2. specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading;

3. fitted with devices permitting its ready handling, particularly its transfer from one mode of transport to another;

4. so designed as to be easy to fill and empty;

5. having a length of 20 feet or more.

The size of containers is reported according to four categories:

1) 20 Foot ISO containers (length of 20 feet and width of 8 feet)

2) 40 Foot ISO containers (length of 40 feet and width of 8 feet)

3) ISO containers over 20 feet and under 40 feet in length

4) ISO containers over 40 feet long

Containers smaller than 20 feet are reported under Category 1.

Containers of unknown size are reported under Category 3.

Inland waterways accidents: specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event caused by, or in connection with, the operation of an inland waterways vessel resulting in an inland waterways casualty or incident which occurs at a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effect.

By definition suicides are excluded, as they are a deliberate act. Because of their importance, suicide statistics should be collected separately. Terrorist and criminal acts are excluded.

Inland waterways accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods: An inland waterways accident involving a vessel carrying any of the classes of dangerous goods defined by the ADN classification

Inland waterway traffic: any movement of an IWT vessel on a given IWT network.When a vessel is being carried on another vehicle, only the movement of the carrying vehicle (active mode) is taken into account.

Inland waterway journey: any movement of an IW vessel from a specified point of origin to a specified point of destination.

 For more definitions and concepts, please consult the “Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics”, chapter 4.

The statistical units for inland waterways transport are the inland waterways undertakings.

All enterprises/undertakings that carry out inland waterways transport on a national territory over one year, irrespective of their country of origins or place of first loading and final unloading.

Finland

The data are available between 2007 to 2016 and 2019 onwards.

Not applicable

Data is disseminated using the following units of measure:

• 1000T: Thousands of tonnes
• MIO_TKM: Millions of tonnes/km (the transport of one tonne by inland waterways over one kilometre)
• TEU: Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (a unit of volume used in maritime transport statistics equivalent to a 20-foot ISO container )
• 1000 TEU_KM: Thousands of TEUs/Km (the transport of one twenty-foot equivalent unit over one kilometre )
• VES_MOV: Vessel movements (in number)
• >VES_KM: Thousands of vessels/Km (the number of movement of an IWT vessel over one kilometre. The distance taken into account is the distance actually run. Movements of unladed vessels are included. In a convoy, each unit is counted as a vessel)

Quarters for datasets  D1, D2
Whole calendar years for datasets  A1, A3, A4, A5, B1, C1, E1,

European:

• Regulation (EU) 2018/974 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2018 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways (codification)

National:

• Acoording to the Vessel Traffic Service Act (632/2005) The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency collects data on vessel traffic in Finnish ports and the passenger and goods volumes carried by ships for its planning and supervisory tasks and for preparing maritime statistics. The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency may delegate the data collecting to the VTS provider.
• The compilation of statistics is guided by the general act of the national statistical service, the Statistics Act (280/2004, amend. 361/2013). Only the necessary data that are not available from administrative data sources are collected from data suppliers.

Not applicable.

European:

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

National:

• The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is absolutely guaranteed in accordance with the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (532/1999) and the Act on the Openness of Government activities (621/1999), as well as the requirements of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions.
• Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders.
• Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Wilful breaching of data protection is punishable. 

The data collected is not confidential

Statistics Finland's release calendar lists in advance all the statistical data and publications to be released over the year. Statistical releases can be found under statistics-specific releases. Statistical data are released on the Internet at 8 am, unless otherwise indicated. The calendar is updated on weekdays. Statistics Finland's release calendar for the coming year is published every year in December.

Release calendar in English can be accessed on Statistics Finland's Website.

Data are released to all users at the same time.

Annually and quarterly.

Not applicable

Statistics explained articles updated on yearly basis:

Inland waterways freight transport - quarterly and annual data

Inland waterway transport statistics

Please consult free database online

Not applicable.

Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Documentation on methodology is available on the homepage of the statistics on foreign shipping traffic and the statistics on domestic waterborne traffic.

Documentation of the statistics are available (in Finnish) on the homepage of the statistics on foreign shipping traffic and the statistics on domestic waterborne traffic.

When compiling statistics, Statistics Finland observes the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP) and the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) based on them. The Code of Practice concerns the independence and accountability of statistical authorities and the quality of processes and data to be published. The principles are in line with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics approved by the United Nations Statistics Division and are supplementary to them. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice. The principles are also compatible with those of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

More information about this is available on Statistics Finland's quality management pages.

Every year Statistics Finland conducts statistical auditing that helps to ensure the quality of statistics.

The data of the Portnet system are verified and supplemented at the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom based on monthly reports sent by the port authorities.

The statistics on foreign shipping traffic and domestic waterborne traffic aim to serve decision-makers in shipping as well as possible by producing data for planning, monitoring, supervision and decision-making. In addition, manufacturing, trade, research and the shipping business need statistical data concerning transport volumes and transport performance.

User satisfaction is followed with the feedback from the data users. Customer satisfaction is followed with yearly customer satisfaction survey.

All data by the requirements of the Regulation are submitted.

The statistics on shipping traffic can be regarded as exhaustive and reliable. The statistics are based on detailed data collected on each vessel visit.

Not applicable

In terms of goods transport and domestic traffic through the Saimaa Canal, the statistics can be considered comprehensive and reliable.

Quarterly data should be transmitted by Member States to Eurostat within five months of the end of the period of observation; annual data within eight months.

There is no delay between the release calendar and the actual release date.

The data is geographically coherent. Statistics of all the inland waterways in Finland is calculated with the same method from the same dataset.

The data is comparable over the available time series.

There is no other regular inland waterway statistics in Finland. Various port operators may release transport statistics based on their own business.

The data is internally coherent. Provisional and final statistics is calculated with the same method from the same dataset.

There is no separate burden since administratice datasets are used for the statistics compilation.

Not applicable.

Data is continously revised until the yearly publication of the statistical year.

Statistics Finland receives all data needed for production of the statistics on foreign shipping traffic from the PortNet system through the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom. When Finnish and foreign vessels in foreign traffic arrives in or departs from a Finnish port, the shipping company owning the vessel, or more frequently, its representative, inserts data on the vessel and its cargo and loading and unloading port into the nationwide Portnet system or submits the corresponding data on a paper form to the customs office, where the data are saved in the Portnet system. The data are verified and supplemented at Traficom based on monthly reports sent by the port authorities. Data on domestic transport is supplemented with the freighters’ notifications of transport to the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's Inland Waterways Unit.

The data are drawn for Statistics Finland monthly from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s system on the last day of the month.

The data are drawn for Statistics Finland monthly from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s system as a line transfer on the last day of the month. The data delivery is based on a mutual data file agreement.

The data entered by the shipping company or its representative are verified and supplemented at the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom based on monthly reports sent by the port authorities.

The statistics are based on register data, so they are not edited in the statistical production process. However, new data variables are derived from the data.

Not applicable

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