Main employers are the big paper mills producing paper and chemical pulp, which is mainly exported.
Kemi harbour is kept open even in the winter with icebreakers. Winter is dark and cold, but in the summer there is no night at all and climate is mild. The Arctic Comics festival is held in every May when the annually rebuildt world's biggest snow castle has already melted down. The first comics festival of Kemi took place 1981. The beginning was of very modest scale, a seminar with 13 participants and a nationwide comics competition with 27 participating artists.