Gdańsk at the helm

The Baltic coast has received an upgrade that could lead to Poland becoming a powerhouse in European sea trade. The Deepwater Container Terminal (DCT) in Gdańsk, the largest such facility in the southern Baltic, began its preliminary operations at the start of this month with the arrival of a 136-meter Team Lines container vessel en route from Klaipėda, Lithuania, to Hamburg, Germany, loading 55 TEU (twenty-feet equivalent units) of containers. Currently, DCT has a feeder capacity of 500,000 TEU, annually. When the second and third phases are complete, DCT's maximum feeder capacity will increase to as much as 2.5 million TEU. The facility is equipped with three rubber-tired gantry (RTG) cranes as well as two post-Panamax ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, and it will receive an additional STS crane next month.

Altering the courseof Baltic trade

"The DCT facility will significantly alter the existing service pattern on the Baltic," says Krzysztof Urbaś, director of port development at the Port of Gdańsk Authority (ZMPG). "Its most attractive attributes are its location, which provides access to the southern Baltic coast, and its logistical infrastructure. These provide a basis for market potential across the entire Central, Eastern and Southern European regions. DCT gives added value to all businesses operating across our seaport, if you take into consideration the size and scope of the terminal's prospective load capacity."

Jerzy Uziębło, director of the Polish Chamber of Maritime Commerce (KIGM) agrees. "The development of the VI European transport corridor [a project upgrading Central European road networks] opens a new opportunity for increasing the quality of the port's operations overall," he says. Moreover, according to Uziębło, "The development of the terminal - contrary to encroaching on the activities of other nearby ports - will expand the capabilities of all port facilities on the Polish coast, allowing Polish ports to rival those of other Baltic states."

In 2006, Polish ports loaded 581,959 TEU, while the figure for all Baltic ports combined was 6,400,000 TEU and the Pan-European figure stood at 72,300,000 TEU. In terms of turnover, the share of Baltic ports in global sea trade increased 1.4 percent last year, and their share in European sea trade increased 8.7 percent. In terms of loads, Polish ports handled between 12-15 percent more last year than in 2005.

"The number of ships calling at Polish ports is rising steadily. These are feeder vessels that connect Baltic ports with those of Western Europe and provide a base for the intermediary loading and unloading of containers destined for various locations in Europe. Most of those Western European ports are within the ARAH range - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg/Bremerhaven," says Urbaś.

"Currently, the average size of a feeder operating through Baltic ports is between 750-800 TEU, with the largest up to 1,200 TEU. Occasionally, we see ships of up to 5,000 TEU passing through," he added.

Infrastructure upgrade

The Port Authority has introduced a raft of tenders for the reconstruction of the entire port network. The next five years will see the renovation of port facilities and the development of much-needed transportation access infrastructure between the Gdynia and Gdańsk ports. This involves the construction of a tunnel connecting the two, linked to an extended highway through the Gdańsk port, providing direct access between port terminals as well as transport arteries for distribution by road and rail.

The section of the A1 highway leading to the port will be improved, providing a direct link between the ports and the rest of country and the continent. The rail network around the ports will also see improvements that will accommodate trains running 80 km/hour - four times faster than the current maximum speed. ZMPG has also announced that it will offer shares in the Port of Gdańsk Cargo Logistics company later this summer, and plans to use the capital it gains to finance some of the necessary reconstruction work in Tri-city ports.

"Construction of the A1 highway, as well as direct road and rail connections between the port and [outside] logistics [networks], is a deciding factor in the evolution of the port's activity," says Urbaś. "Preparations for the Euro 2012 championship will certainly contribute to the acceleration of infrastructure projects. In addition, a great deal of the resources needed for the organization of the event will be supplied by sea to Gdańsk's ports. Thus, proper transport access is indispensable."

Traffic jam

Currently, traffic at traditional sea terminals in Rotterdam and Hamburg is congested, causing costly delays within the global trade network. Due to this, Fred Kamperman, DCT's general manager, says he is confident that the facility gives Poland's ports - and its trade industry as a whole - the potential to become a much larger player in European trade.

"Depending on trade growth, which is currently rising at an average annual rate of 10-15 percent worldwide, there could be a need to move deep-sea lines further into the Baltic," says Kamperman. "DCT is capable of absorbing this excess, which would found a new role for Poland's Baltic coast as a transport hub for trade between all of Europe and the rest of the world."

The Port of Gdańsk Authority's Urbaś says that such goals are well within reach. "Once DCT has achieved its maximum operational capacity for phase one in October 2007, it will be equipped to handle all ships calling at Polish ports, including ships sailing directly from Asia and the Americas," he says. Moreover, Poland is now a step ahead in the game.

"The current service pattern is shifting to take into account the possibility that ships of up to 9,000 TEU will bypass Western European ports, accessing feeder terminals such as DCT directly. Goods will then be transported through local infrastructure, which should be in place in the next few years, providing intra-European distribution. This could establish DCT as a major Baltic hub for the entire region."