Port of Gdansk boasts solid figures in H1 2016

The past six months of this year were undoubtedly successful for the Port of Gdansk, as the volume of transshipments handled during that time reached nearly 18 million tonnes. This is a result worthy of a record, as in comparison, in the analogous period of the previous year, which went down in the history of the Polish maritime economy, the port handled over 700,000 tonnes of cargo less than this year, the Port Authority said in a media release.

The coal and general cargo turnover is worthy of special attention. During the first six months of this year, a total of more than 2.5 million tonnes of coal was handled on the quays of the Port of Gdansk, which is an increase of as much as 32% compared to the previous year, and at the same time, the second best result in this respect during the last decade, after 2013.

An almost identical growth dynamics was recorded in the transshipments of general cargo, which increased in Gdansk by 31% compared to the first half of the previous year. Altogether, the transshipments in this group of goods totalled 7.2 million tonnes, which is the best result in the port's history. Both high transshipments of containerised goods and other commodities, including conventional general cargo and Ro-Ro cargo, contributed to the record result. The former increased by 32% when expressed in tonnes and by 27% considering the volume of containers expressed in TEU. Meanwhile, the remaining cargo comprising the general cargo group increased by 17% in the past six months, including Ro-Ro cargo - by 12.5%.

Very good results were recorded in Gdansk also when it comes to the turnover of so-called other bulk cargo, which totalled nearly 2 million tonnes at the port. A similar level of transshipments in this group during the last decade was observed only twice, in 2011 and 2012. At that time, it totalled 2.1 and 2.2 million tonnes, respectively. Such good results are mainly due to increased transshipments of aggregate, as well as a nearly twofold increase in the volumes of feldspar and soda.

However, some decreases were also recorded in the last six months. They affected mainly the transshipments of cereals (down by 29%), due to a smaller import volume of these goods, and liquid fuels (down by 22.5%) - although a considerable level of 5.6 million tonnes of the latter was handled. It is worth noting that last year's result recorded in this group of goods was the highest in the port's history.

In spite of the above, the Port of Gdansk ended the first six months of this year with a result better by 4.3% than in the previous year, which does not entirely reflect the winning streak of this half year, as since January, the dynamics of growth in cargo turnover has reached two-digit results. It was only the slightly lower June transshipments, considering the record turnover of last June, which lowered the final result for the last six months.

Nevertheless, according to initial data, the more than 4% increase is a result which only Klaipeda managed to beat in the Baltic area, recording a 5.7% increase compared to 2015. The other Baltic ports, in particular the Latvian ones and Tallinn in Estonia, suffered two-digit decreases of as much as 11%. Will these changes bring a reshuffle in the ranking of the largest Baltic seaports? If nothing changes - they probably will. As for today, only 33,000 tonnes separate Gdansk from Riga, which ranked fourth last year - which is a positive signal for the remaining part of the year.