North European companies and major Eurasian countries – future outlook on logistics flows and their sustainability

In this research work we analyse transportation volume development in major Finnish and Swedish companies using two times completed empirical survey (during years 2006 and 2009). Findings indicate that companies are identifying medium‐term volume growth of container transports in Russian and Chinese markets, and partially with India. However, most of the concern is traffic imbalance, particularly developing in unwanted direction with India and China. Interestingly, Russian market, with some exceptions, is still going to be served from European factories in the medium‐term too. However, in limited amount of companies it seems that Russian factories start to serve also larger European demand. As economic recession turns into Eurasian led growth during the next decade, it is questionable whether delayed investments are made in time to support further growth in trade and transport. Also large‐scale usage of road transport in the forthcoming decade increases concerns about the environmental sustainability of this sector.