Poland’s leading seaports are shifting their strategic focus toward accessibility and multimodal connectivity as the primary constraints on further growth, following a period of record cargo volumes that has exposed the limitations of existing road, rail and border infrastructure.
The issues were discussed at length during a session on Polish seaport challenges and priorities at the European Economic Congress.
The Port of Gdańsk closed 2025 with 80.4 million tonnes of cargo handled, a 4% increase on the prior year, though adverse winter conditions limited what could have been an even stronger result.
The Baltic Hub container terminal delivered particularly impressive performance, handling 2.7 million TEUs in 2025, a 23% year-on-year increase that Katarzyna Szczycińska, acting director of the Strategy and Development Department at the Port of Gdańsk Authority, described as difficult to match among European container terminals for pace of growth.
The upward trajectory has continued into 2026, with Baltic Hub recording a 22% increase in cargo handling in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
Expansion plans for the Baltic Hub include the extension of storage yards and quays, and the construction of a second seven-track railway siding with 750-metre-long tracks.
At full development, the terminal would be capable of handling close to 7 million TEUs annually.
Szczycińska emphasised that realising this potential requires corresponding investment in rail and road infrastructure capable of efficiently moving that volume of containers to and from the port.
A critical infrastructure gap identified at the discussion is the outer port’s current dependence on a single road bridge and a single railway bridge connecting it to the mainland, despite the outer port accounting for approximately 80 percent of total cargo handling.
Planning for a second road-rail link has entered the conceptual design phase, with a consensus target set for within three years to enable subsequent design work to begin.
The development of a new rail link in partnership with PLK S.A. was also highlighted as a key priority. Plans for an Integrated Border Control Point expected to cover over 90 percent of Baltic Hub cargo are also underway.
The discussion also addressed plans for deep-water container terminals at Gdynia and Świnoujście, with participants unanimous that competition among Polish ports is a healthy market dynamic.
Rafał Zahorski, a member of the Management Board of the Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports, noted that market analyses indicate no meaningful overlap in the cargo handling profiles of the three major Polish ports.
This cooperative orientation is formalised through the Polish Ports partnership, signed at the Polish Ports Congress in Sopot last year, under which the three ports collaborate on infrastructure advocacy, process streamlining and joint market analysis to inform shared strategic planning.
