Despite the country’s disruptions in supply chains, the Polish ports have achieved a noteworthy container volume increase during 2021.
In particular, Poland’s major container port of Gdansk handled 2.12 million TEU in the previous year, which translates to an increase of 10.1% year-on-year, while the Port of Gdynia reported a container throughput of 986,000 TEU, reflecting an 8.9% rise compared to 2020.
The Port of Gdańsk claims it is the fastest-growing port in Europe in the last decade, with a growth rate of 110%, while it handled a total of 53.2 million tons of goods in 2021.
“This is the best result in our history. We managed to beat the record from 2019, in which we handled 52 million tonnes,” said Łukasz Greinke, CEO of the Port of Gdansk.
Meanwhile, hinterland connections, which were previously dominated by trucks, are set to change, as the Polish government is initiating major rail infrastructure in the ports.
The container terminal access in Gdansk was improved and a rail terminal was expanded, while the Gdynia-Port railway station has been modernised, increasing the performance of the railway.
“Everyone involved in the logistics chain faced a lot more work this year to achieve the same performance of previous years,” stated Maciej Brzozowski, head of Port of Hamburg’s representative office in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland.
Brzozowski added, “I cannot remember such a turbulent year in the maritime industry as we faced in 2021. The biggest struggle for imports and exports was the ship delays. They are no longer an exception. Container terminals had to introduce some special measures, such as restricted export container deliveries, to reduce the issue of congestion at the terminals.”
