Surroundings of port cranes by the Martwa Wisla river at sundown, Gdansk. Poland. Gdańsk has formally turn into the EU’s fifth-largest port.
Credit score: Shutterstock, Patryk Kosmider
Gdańsk is rising and is more and more being recognised as a serious hub in Europe. The busy Polish port has sailed previous Spain’s Algeciras and France’s HAROPA to turn into the fifth-busiest within the EU. With solely Amsterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp-Bruges, and Rotterdam forward of it, Gdańsk’s development is making fairly a splash in international maritime logistics.
In accordance with the latest Eurostat information for 2023, the port dealt with 26% extra cargo than the earlier 12 months, amounting to an enormous 69.78 million tonnes. This exceptional development displays a 177% rise since 2014, a lift fueled by important investments in infrastructure and the Baltic Sea’s rising function as a significant transit hub for vitality provides and international logistics.
Within the race for the most important ports in Europe, Gdańsk has been on a roll. Again in 2021, it grew to become the EU’s largest port on the Baltic Sea, overtaking Lithuania’s Klaipėda, and at this time it holds the second spot within the area, solely behind Russia’s Ust-Luga.
Gdańsk’s journey from development spurt to file earnings
Poland’s port sector is crusing easily with record-breaking monetary and operational outcomes. Nationwide information reveals that the nation’s ports achieved a 26% year-on-year improve in internet revenue, bringing the whole to over 551.7 million zloty (€129.3 million). As well as, the variety of containers dealt with throughout Poland’s ports rose by 9.3%, totalling 3.27 million TEUs in 2024.
The Baltic Sea is extra essential than ever for Europe.
The port of Gdańsk’s rising significance isn’t nearly cargo. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Baltic Sea has turn into an more and more very important strategic route for vitality provides, together with liquefied pure fuel (LNG) from the US and Qatar, alongside humanitarian and army support to Ukraine. In consequence, Gdańsk noticed the EU’s second-highest development in cargo in 2022, and it’s solely choosing up steam.
Poland isn’t stopping with Gdańsk.
The federal government has earmarked a file 2 billion zloty (€469 million) in its 2025 finances for maritime investments. Among the many huge tasks is a brand new deep-water container terminal in Świnoujście, set to be accomplished by 2028, which is able to solidify the Szczecin-Świnoujście seaport advanced as one of the vital fashionable in Europe.
Gdańsk additionally has a grain terminal growth within the works. As soon as accomplished, this improve will quintuple storage capability and improve annual reloading capability from 700,000 tonnes to almost 3 million tonnes. As well as, a floating LNG terminal is being developed, alongside the deepening of the Elbląg waterway to remodel it into a totally practical seaport by mid-2026.
Whereas the expansion of Polish ports is undeniably spectacular, not everyone seems to be on board. Plans to develop a deepwater container port inside a protected nature reserve on the Baltic coast have raised issues. Locals, in addition to critics in Germany, fear concerning the environmental impression of the brand new developments. Supporters, nonetheless, argue that the financial advantages are too good to go up.
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