During a maritime and business delegation from Poland to Singapore, the Port of Gdansk, Europe’s fastest growing port, has announced remarkable expansion plans aiming to double its cargo volumes to 100m tonnes annually.
According to Marcin Osowski, the Port of Gdansk Authority vice-president for infrastructure, for this to happen, the current infrastructure investment programme of €591m and the plans for the new Central Port are of vital importance.
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The proposals for the Central Port include building 19 km of operational quays, 8.5 km of breakwaters and the building of nine terminals, four turning areas and three approach fairways. He added that the terminals could be used for containers, passengers, offshore operations, LNG operations and shipbuilding.
Slawomir Michalewski, the Port of Gdansk CFO highlighted that Gdansk is the only port on the Baltic capable of receiving the biggest container vessels from Asia. He also said that a big element to the future growth of the port would be plans to regenerate Poland’s inland waterways network to accommodate more freight including the famous Vistula River.
In fact, DCT Gdansk deputy CEO Laurent Spiessens “Gdansk’s unique location makes it the ideal gateway port to Central Eastern Europe and transhipment hub for the Baltic,” adding that “Gdansk has the best hinterland connections into central and eastern Europe reaching 120million people.”
He further highlighted that “this investment combined with improvements to cross-border rail and road networks into countries like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus and Ukraine means Gdansk has huge potential to grow.”
It is added that in 2018, the Port of Gdansk grew by 20% and 9% already so far this year, being on target to exceed 50m tonnes of cargo for the first time, increasing from 40m in 2017.
Further to this, Laurent Spiessens stated that
We are determined to drive growth further and we have already invested in new cranes and infrastructure that has helped increase TEU capacity from 2.2million (m) in 2018 to an estimated 2.8m in 2019. We can continue to grow and increase this capacity to 3m TEU by 2020 and eventually 7m TEU. Key to this will be our €20m investment in the rail network and equipment including increasing the port’s railway tracks from four to seven.
Moreover, Port of Gdansk Authority vice-president for infrastructure Marcin Osowski further outlined that “this is a truly great business and commercial opportunity for Singapore and Asian investors. This is tangible, it has the support of the Polish Government and the whole maritime industry in Poland. The funding can be flexible split between public and private finance and the development itself can be flexible depending on port requirements.” In particular, he underlined that plans to build a new €2.8billion Euro Central Port to complement DCT Gansk’s operations will be “the biggest maritime investment project in Europe.”
Notably, the delegation in particular, which is being led by the Port of Gdansk and PSA International, the Singapore-based global ports group, marks the 50-years of diplomatic ties between the two countries and further aims to endorse investment and business exchange between Poland and Singapore as two of world’s best performing economies.
In May this year, PSA International (PSA), the Polish Development Fund (PFR) and the IFM Global Infrastructure Fund (GIF), have completed the transaction to jointly acquire DCT Gdańsk, the largest container terminal in Poland.
It is underlined that the annual trade between Singapore and Poland has grown to more than 11billion Singapore Dollars, with 100 Polish companies now based in Singapore, partly thanks to a new direct air route, while the investment by PSA International in DCT Gdansk is the largest Singaporean investment in Poland. The conference in particular was told Poland is one of the most successful economies in Europe with an average growth rate of 4.2% per year between 1992-2019 meaning it is now the seventh largest economy in the EU with a total GDP of €524 billion.
Poland announced its plans to construct a deep-sea port in Gdnask Bay, with the capability of receiving almost 100 MMT of cargo per year in November 2017. According to sources, the port would cost 1.4-2.1 billion euros and is estimated to have been completed by 2028.
The construction of the port aims to balance the competition from North and Baltic Seas ports and to further provide services to customers in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and northern Ukraine, Lukasz Grejnke.
In August, the Port of Gdansk Authority (PGA) signed an agreement with a consulting company, aiming to support the construction of the port basing on a public-private partnership model. In the meantime, during 2019, the Port of Gdansk set new records in cargo handling, while also continuing its intensive work on its key infrastructural project which is the Central Port.
