2018-08-13

Striving for 100 million tonnes

Polish ports again showed a surprising growth dynamics concerning transshipment in the first half of this year. Even a year ago, when it was at the level of 6.3%, it seemed high, but this time 51.4 million t commodities were transshipped within 6 months, which is by almost 9 million t, that is 1/5 more than analogously in the previous year. The good streak has lasted for 8 years in row now.

What is important, unlike in previous years, this growth affected all groups of commodities sans one. Less than truckload, which amounted to 24.6 million t (more than by 4.2 million), weighted most when it comes to results of these ports. The second biggest group of cargo when it comes to quantity was constituted by liquid fuels, the total transshipment of which amounted to 11 million t (so almost 2 million more), but when it comes to growth dynamics this group was superseded by transshipment of coal, which from year to year increased by as much as 2.6 million t; in total, their transshipment amounted to 6.2 million t. Last year, transshipments in this group decreased by 1/5, but this year they increased by over 2/3 (68%).

No commodity group has however achieved such growth dynamics as transshipments of wood. In previous years, quantities handled by ports were so small, that e.g. they were not even separately mentioned in the statistics of the port in Gdynia in previous years, and they did not even constitute in total 1% of port turnover. This time, in comparison to analogous half a year, its transshipments increased 11 times, especially in the Port of Gdynia, where 500,000 t of cargo was handled within half a year.

The only group of commodities where ports transshipments significantly decreased was the group of grain and feed (by 1/3). In total, in all main ports, 2.2 million t of them was handled, which was by over 1 million t less than in the previous year. Several years ago, it was this group that underwent very big increases concerning quantities of cargoes, but now for the last 3 years only decreases have been noted. Drought, which very probably will drastically decrease this year’s crop yields, may cause that also in the future months, grain will arrive to Polish ports more often as import cargoes, not export ones.

The biggest share in the turnover of 3 main Polish ports belongs to the “less than truckload” group. During the last 3 years (in the first half a year), it had a share of 48% in transshipment. “Liquid fuels” constituted the next group (21%). Their share also did not change from year to year. However, in the third biggest group when it comes to transshipments - “coal and coke” - we may notice a dynamic growth - from 9% to 13%. The share of “grain and feeds” did on the other hand decrease gradually during last 3 years, from 9% to 8%, and most recently, to 7%. Decreases in the “other bulk” cargo groups were even more noticeable in this period: 9-8-4%.

The port that dominates the Polish market more and more each year when it comes to maritime trade is Gdańsk. In the last half a year, Gdańsk once more showed the biggest growth dynamics concerning transshipments (35%) by handling over
25 million t of commodities, which is almost by 6.5 million t more than in the previous year. Gdańsk’s share in the turnover of Polish ports amounted to 49%, the share of Szczecin and Świnoujście - 27%, Gdynia - 22%, and the share of a small port in Police located by the Odra river – 2%.

The development of Polish maritime ports will be one of the topics of the Maritime Economy Forum Gdynia 2018.

Article developed in cooperation with "Namiary na Morze i Handel" magazine.

Phot. Namiary na Morze i handel