New major port planned in Gulf of Botnia
In five years time, the island of Storoen outside Kalix, northern Sweden, could become the site for a new major port, of possible interest for major parts of the Barents Region, regional port developers say.
The projected port would have a better deep-water capacity than the neighboring Kemi port on the Finnish side of the nearby border. The main target of the port developers are mining companies operating in the Swedish and Finnish Lapland. As ore extraction is planned to increase extensively near the towns of Pajala and Kolari, the Kemi harbor is not enough, Nordnytt, Swedish Television, reported last week.
-The new harbor would not compete with Kemi but rather have complementary functions for the ships that are too large, says Head of the Kalix municipality to Nordnytt.
-This is not a local question, he underlines, but of interest for the Barents Region in order to be able to effectively reach out to the world market, the municipal leader adds.
The harbor project is currently under investigation of the Swedish state. The inhabitants of the island are mostly against the plans.
As BarentsObserver previously reported, the ore from northern Sweden and Finland mining project is a subject of increasing interest also for other groups. When visiting northern Norway last year, Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen called for the construction of a new railway from Kolari in Finland to Skibotn in Norway
