Port of Gdansk to become the biggest and Busiest Port of Europe | LOTUS Containers

The Port of Gdansk of Poland is all set to become one of the biggest and busiest seaports in Europe. It is going to be the biggest investment ever made in the port in the Baltic Sea. The port is said to have the fastest linkage with East Europe covering areas of Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, and Slovakia. Hereafter, the Russian port of St. Petersburg is ahead of the port of Gdansk by just 122,000 TEUs, which means that Gdansk is very near to cross this value and stands top of all.

The net cargo volume in the Port of Gdansk is expected to double in the coming few years. The region is expected to grow in GDP by 48% by the year 2030. The extra space in the port of Gdansk will be a major source to double the cargo volume from 50 million tons per year to 100 million tons per year.

According to Marcin Osowski, the Vice President for Infrastructure, the plans include installation of 12 miles of new harbors, nine more terminals for cargo uses, five miles of the breakwater, four turning basins, and three approach fairways.

The expansion project also includes the installation of three RMC (Rail Mounted Cranes) in the coming years aimed towards enhancing efficiency that currently operates with only two RTG cranes. The port will expand and grow considerably, particularly after the acquisition of the DCT  shipping container terminal, owning a container terminal network spreading all across the world, said by the VPI during the Rail Freight Summit, Gdansk held from 15–16 May 2019. The Summit also discussed topics such as the Silk Road, Intermodal Transportation, etc.

Anticipated Growth Factors

Wide Railway Connection

The port has a good number of natural hinterland locations such as the Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia reaching 120 million people. The plan includes connecting Belarus and Slovakia directly through a new rail connection which is likely to spike the figure above. Also, the huge impact is tied with the ECT (Euro Chain Train), directly connecting China with Gdansk.

The port will regularly receive huge rail services from Xi’an through Malaszewicze to Gdansk. Besides, the acquisition of the DCT container terminal by the PSA group will also deliberately upraise the growth in upcoming years.

 The Ideal Location of the Port

Laurent Spiessens, the CEO of DCT Container Terminal stated, “Uniquely located Gdansk port is the ideal gateway to Central Eastern Europe and transshipment center for the Baltic Sea making it the fastest-growing and largest port in Europe.”

The VPI, Marcin Osowski says that the agency is planning to develop Euro Central Port as a public Venture and the project is being strongly backed up by the Polish Government. Looking at its vastness and complexities, the project has been grouped into 4 phases and scheduled to be completed by the year 2029.

 National Railway Program

Poland being a trade-centric country is continuously planning to enhance its already existing wide railway network after realizing its growing importance. Approximately 18,000 Km is planned to modernize, not in terms of just speed but also in terms of expansion. In its National Railway Program, it has announced to invest 15.5 billion Euros to expand its rail network by 2023. This will help in the expansion of the shipping container industry as these new railways will allow more import exports where goods will be transported all over the world through intermodal transportation.

 Large Containers Handling Through Railways

The modal split on the port of the Baltic Sea is already greater than other ports. The North Sea ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven noticed a modal split of 43% and 46% respectively in the year 2017 while the port of Wilhelmshaven and Rotterdam handled 33% and 10% of vessel traffic loaded with freight containers by rail respectively. Currently, the port is witnessed to have around 33% of cargo container handlings by rail which is anticipated to be raised to 50% after investing in infrastructure development and it will be a massive upraise.

 Competitive advantage as compared to Klaipeda

The port of Gdansk is one of the biggest and busiest ports in Europe. It has a greater plus point for the transshipment of cargoes in shipping containers as the additional costs at Gdansk port are much lower than those in the port of Klaipeda. In Klaipeda, you have to pay for terminal handling charges, inventory cost, feeder slot cost, warehousing, and everything but at Gdansk, you pay only for the border shipment. This is a tremendous difference between both that adds benefit to the port of Gdansk. The total charge via Gdansk to Klaipeda is 15% higher than via Gdansk.

Besides, the new rail connection will not make Gdansk ahead of only Klaipeda but also Duisburg (the European hub for Eurasian traffic) and it will also enable Gdansk to handle the big volume of cargoes directly coming from China.

 Direct Connection to Slovakia and the Czech Republic

The port will also construct a direct rail link to Zilina in Slovakia that will shorten the route currently running via Katowice and Warsaw. These connections will bring new possibilities not only for the port but also for shipping companies.

 The rail link already connects the port to Ostrava in the Czech Republic, which is another growing economic country and massive export volume area. The cargoes designated to non-EU countries constitute 27% of the entire export and will now pass through Gdansk with the deep sea connection.

 Conclusion

The year 2018 had recorded 50 million tons of all types of cargo handling which is anticipated to be doubled i.e., a billion tons by the year 2030. “This forecast reminds me of those days when Poland was the gravity center of trade and had enjoyed its days by ruling this part of the world for a long. History seems to see the repeat again and Poland is on the way to gain the same limelight with the development of Brexit and the Silk Road”, said Marcin Osowski.

There is no doubt, the shipping companies with their wings spread in Europe are hugely going to be benefited by serving such a great figure of shippers. The Gdansk Port will soon be considered as one of the top 10 busiest ports in the world. Now it’s time for you to avail more flexible and cost-effective services offered by some of the renowned container supplier companies like LOTUS Containers that offer a wide array of container services like buying, selling and leasing of metal containers, empty container positioning, and many more.