21st March 2008
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Polish ports expand at breakneck speed
The number of containers handled by Poland's four sea ports - Gdynia, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Swinoujscie - increased by 31% last year, and their share of Baltic container traffic increased to 10.2% from 9%, giving Poland fourth place behind Russia, Sweden and Finland, according to data from Actia Forum, a consultancy.
However, by weight, total cargo declined by 0.6% due to lower exports of coal and fuels. Gdynia was the only one of the four to see a jump in total cargo by weight, benefiting from an earlier decision to diversify into other products. Even so, cargo traffic in the Baltic sea is expected to grow rapidly over the coming years, and all Polish seaports plan major capacity expansion to capture a share of this growth. They stand a good chance as St.Petersburg, the largest transshipment port in the Baltic, which is operating at full capacity, has no possibility to develop. The four Polish ports plan to spend a staggering €400 million on new capacity over the next five years, taking the total to more than eight million containers per year, up from 1.7 million at the moment. Gdańsk, in particular, is seeking to position itself as the Baltic's main transshipment hub. Capacity at the port is expected to grow more than eight-fold over the next four years, to five million containers, up from 600,000. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B5) R.M.
From Warsaw Business Journal
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