UK Company Develops Gdansk Container Terminal

The 80 hectare terminal, on 15 m of water in the northern part of the port, will be the biggest of its kind in Poland and capable of handling ships of up to and probably beyond 6000 TEUs.

Gdansk, which handled 6.7 million tons overall but only 6,500 TEUs in the first four months of this year, is the only Polish port capable of handling big boxships and providing the hinterland rail and road links for container traffic.

DCT Gdansk CEO James Sutcliffe was quoted as saying Phase 1 of the $170M project would provide two 300 m long berths for Panamax size vessels and one berth with a Ro-Ro facility. The terminal would have an initial capacity to handle 500,000 TEUs after Phase 1, with a maximum capacity of a million TEUs once the third berth, Phase 2, came on stream.

Sutcliffe was further quoted as saying Gdansk’s ‘excellent road and rail links’ and its location as the easternmost ice-free port in the Baltic were the main reasons why DCT Gdansk decided to invest in the terminal.

He said it could be completed inside 28 months. Port Chief Marian Switek said further development included up to four new Ro-Ro berths to support Baltic ferry and feeder traffic. A cruise terminal and logistics park were also being considered, he said.

Sutcliffe said the terminal would generate ‘a substantial number of new jobs in addition to a permanent staff of over 370 by 2009 to service this new facility’. Further planned infrastructure developments could provide up to 2000 new jobs in Gdansk, he said.