What a sea freight export includes
- Booking space with the carrier and choosing the sailing
- Empty container delivered to your loading site, or pallet pickup for the LCL terminal
- Export declaration with Finnish Customs and the export clearance for you
- VGM submission and haulage to the port before the cut-off
- Bill of lading (B/L) or sea waybill
- Customs clearance and delivery at destination through our partners
- Cargo insurance on request
How a container export works
- Quote. You send the shipment details and receive a written quote with the route, sailing, cost breakdown and estimated transit time.
- Booking. Once you accept, we book the space. You receive a booking confirmation with the vessel, departure date and cut-off, the last moment the container and documents must be at the port.
- Loading. For FCL, we bring the empty container to your site on the agreed day. For LCL, we collect your pallets and take them to the terminal, where they are loaded into a shared container.
- Weighing and export declaration. We submit the container’s verified gross mass (VGM) to the carrier and file the export declaration with Finnish Customs from your commercial invoice and packing list.
- Sailing. The container goes to the port and onto the vessel. From Finland, containers usually travel on a feeder vessel to a large North European port, where they are transhipped onto an ocean vessel.
- Bill of lading. After loading, you receive the bill of lading or sea waybill, which the consignee uses to take delivery at the destination port.
- Arrival. Our partner at destination handles import clearance and delivery when the Incoterm requires it.
FCL or LCL for export?
A full container (FCL) suits shipments from about 10–15 m³, heavy goods, or cargo that should travel in a sealed container without handling on the way. It is priced per container: 20 ft (about 33 m³), 40 ft (about 67 m³) or 40 ft high cube (about 76 m³).
Shared-container cargo (LCL) suits a few pallets. You pay per revenue tonne (W/M), that is per cubic metre or per 1,000 kg, whichever is greater. LCL is usually a little slower, because cargo is consolidated at origin and unpacked at the destination terminal. You can work out the revenue tonnes with our chargeable weight calculator.
Cost elements, container sizes and demurrage are explained on the sea freight rates page.
Which port does an export container leave from?
| Port | Best for |
|---|---|
| Helsinki, Vuosaari | The Helsinki region and southern Finland. Our team is on site at Vuosaari every working day. |
| HaminaKotka | South-east Finland and forest and chemical industry exports |
| Rauma | Western Finland and the Tampere region |
We ship from every cargo port in Finland, including Turku, Hanko, Pori, Kokkola, Oulu and Kemi. We choose the port based on the loading address, the destination and the sailings available. Trucks and trailers to Central Europe often go on ro-ro ferries from Vuosaari to Germany, when that is faster or cheaper than a container. Read more about road freight.
Export documents
| Document | Prepared by | When needed |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial invoice | Exporter (you) | Always. Goods description, value, currency, Incoterm and commodity code. |
| Packing list | Exporter | Always. Packages, dimensions and weights. |
| Export declaration | Us | When the goods leave the EU |
| VGM | Us, from the shipper’s data | Always for containers, before loading on the vessel |
| Bill of lading or sea waybill | Carrier, arranged by us | Always |
| Proof of origin | Exporter, with our help | When the consignee claims a preferential duty rate under an EU trade agreement |
| A.TR certificate | Us | For shipments to Turkey |
| Safety data sheet and IMDG details | Exporter | For dangerous goods |
Read more about the export declaration and zero-rated VAT on the export customs clearance page. The Incoterm decides who pays which part of the transport; see Incoterms 2020.
Sea freight combined with rail or air
Not every shipment is best served by a vessel alone. We also arrange:
- Sea-air: the cargo travels part of the way by sea and continues as air freight. This is faster than sea freight alone and cheaper than air freight alone.
- Sea and rail: the container continues from the port by rail inland, for example to inland container depots in India.
- Middle Corridor: through our partners across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
Where we ship by sea
We export containers and LCL cargo to every country the carriers serve, except Russia and Belarus. Our regular destinations include:
- Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico
- India, the UAE and Turkey
- Japan, South Korea and Vietnam
- the USA and the UK
See all countries on the destinations page.
Transit time and price
Sea freight transit time and price depend on the destination port, the carrier, the sailing and the season. Ocean rates often change weekly, so a quote is valid for the period stated in it and for a specific sailing. If the goods are urgent, compare with air freight from Finland, which typically arrives in 1–3 days.
Updated 19 October 2026 · Reviewed by Artem Tchervonni, Managing Director