2020-02-14

Growth dynamics slows down

 Within the decade since those events the total volume of cargo handled at the main Polish ports has grown by 122%. At this period the highest annual growth was recorded in 2010 - by 30,9% - which in the global context was a derivative of the economy reacting to the crisis of 2008-2009, and in the local context - of the  DCT in Gdańsk  commencing with the deep-sea container service on a weekly basis of container vessels from the Far East.  The subsequent years with a recorded high growth dynamics rate were 2013 - growth by 9.8%, 2017 - by 7.7% and 2018 - by 15.2%. However the past year witnessed a sudden slowing down of the growth dynamics rate, to 2.5%, which not only indicates a growth rate that is lower than in 2018, but also shows poorer results for the 2nd half of the year than those achieved in the 1st half.

In general, last year brought growth in the total volume of cargo handled in the 3 main Polish ports. The fastest growth rate was recorded in the smallest of the 3 ports, that is at Police. Its growth rate reached 11.4%. On the other hand the larger of the port complexes - the Szczecin-Świnoujście, recorded a drop of around 3%. The opposite happened in the Tri-City. The faster growth was experienced at the larger port, at Gdańsk, with the rate of growth dynamics reaching 6.4%. Less progress was recorded at Gdynia, with growth at 2%. This caused minimal changes in the shares of each individual port in the total volume of cargo handled.  Gdynia maintained its status from 2018 - at 22%. Gdańsk strenghtened its leadership position increasing its share by 1 percentage point to reach 47%. In second place when it comes to shares in the total volume of cargo handled is Szczecin-Świnoujście, which at 29% decresed its share by 2 percentage points. The smallest port - Police, gained 1 percentage point and its share amounts to 2%. As this summary shows 69%of the Polish port traffic is generated by the ports of the Gdansk Bay, and 31% - by the ports located in the Bay of Pomerania .

With regard to specific ports, in 2019 Gdańsk, for the first time in its history has exceeded 50 million tons of cargo volumes handled, recording a result of 52.154 million tonnes, and reaching 6.4 % growth in relation to the previous year, which is equivalent to 3.122 million tonnes. This also indicates an 8th consecutive year of growth and a turnover increase of 176% in the last decade. In 2019, after 3 years of dynamic growth, Port Gdynia’s growth dynamics have slowed down. The growth dynamics at 2%, means an increase of only 439 thousand tonnes as compared to 2018. This is also the port with the lowest growth dynamics rate in the last decade, however  81% is undoubtedly a good result. The year 2019 at the Szczecin-Świnoujście port complex was not succesful in terms of productivity. A 3% drop in the total volume of cargo handling, means a decrease in turnover by more than 1 million tonnes as compared to 2018. The annual result amounts to 32.2 million tonnes. The growth dynamics for the last decade stands at 95%. The smallest of the Polish ports under consideration in this report - Police - recorded the highest growth dynamics rate for 2019 - 11.4%, however in the preceeding year the volumes of cargo handling dropped by 16.2%.

Article developed with Namiary na Morze i Handel magazine

phot. Namiary na Morze i Handel