Continued downward economic spiral of coastal ports appears inevitable

Polish seaports are finding it constantly harder to compete with other Baltic sea-terminals. Increasingly it seems that the only way to remain economically viable will be for them to widen their economic activities. Poland has dropped far behind regional ports in Finland, Russia and the Baltic states. "Our ports cannot survive, even if the cargo we process surged thanks to renewed economic growth. They need to widen their portfolio of activities to engage in a whole range of profitable activities, not only those that bear a connection with maritime commerce," said the deputy director of the Transport and Sea Trade Institute, Stanislaw Szwankowski. The tragic state of the national road network is so bad that many companies have been forced to switch to German ports. Polish ports also suffer from an inability to quickly load cargo from trucks to ships to meet client ti metables. As a result millions of tons of cargo are abandoning a traditional North-South route and taking with them hopes for a key part of the planned national motorway network. (Prawo i Gospodarka, pp. 1, 3) M.M.