68.2 million tons – Port of Gdańsk breaks yet another record

Over the last 6 years, the cargo volume handled at the Port of Gdańsk has grown by 83%, reaching 68.2 million tons in 2022, the highest figure in the Port’s history. It was a year-to-year increase of +28%. This spectacular record number was undoubtedly driven by the energy material handling.

On 23 January, the Ministry of Infrastructure held a conference to summarise the last year’s performance of the sea ports in Poland. The conference was attended by Vice-Minister Marek Gróbarczyk, Grzegorz Witkowski, the Undersecretary of the Minister of Infrastructure, and the management of three largest Polish sea ports: Gdańsk, the Szczecin-Świnoujście port complex, and Gdynia.

“This was a fantastic year for Polish sea ports. The 2021 record for the volume of cargo handled was broken in a spectacular fashion. The cargo handling volumes achieved are clear evidence of just how good the conditions are at Poland’s three largest ports. The total cargo handled by all these facilities was 133M tons. That was 18% more than the previous year. The embargo on Russian goods has demonstrated how important sea ports are and their critical role in national security. I am convinced that the success of our sea ports has been driven by the projects completed in recent years, which have spurred growth in the industry and increased the cargo handling capacities. I would like to thank the port management and operators, and all their personnel, for their hard work. I hope that this year there will be more good news for the Polish shipping economy”, said Marek Gróbarczyk, Vice-Minister of Infrastructure.

Grzegorz Witkowski, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure added that Polish sea ports have passed the test with flying colours: “When Russia attacked Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022, we knew that Polish sea ports would have a major role to play. This was achieved. The ports employed their commercial capacity. Together with the port operators, allowing them to withstand the challenges. However, every cargo ship and each shipping container is handled by people. We still need a greater workforce. We currently have seven thousand students in higher shipping and marine education. They are the future ship officers, captains, logistical specialists and engineers”, Grzegorz Witkowski said during the conference.

Łukasz Greinke, the President of the Port of Gdańsk, admitted that the year 2022 brimmed with challenges.

“We faced serious challenges from the economic consequences triggered by the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the closure of Poland’s eastern border to raw material imports, especially coal. The sea ports, including Gdańsk, had to accept volumes of cargo previously imported by land. We tackled this challenge with success. Thanks to the projects completed in recent years, like retrofitting the quays and storage yards, we now have peace of mind and no need to worry that homes in Poland will not be heated”.

In 2022, the Port of Gdańsk handled a total of 68.2 million tons of cargo, an increase by 28%, year to year. This is actually the highest handled cargo volume in the history of the Port of Gdańsk. The two cargo handling groups which saw the highest increase in volume were crude and coal. The coal volume peaked at 13.2M tons (+175% from 2021), with approximately 12.5M tons imported. The volume of liquid fuels handled grew by as much as 35%, which was more than bulk, and became the biggest handled cargo group for Gdańsk. The total volume of fuels handled was 25M tons.

“We are a dynamically growing sea port operation. We have challenged the leading European ports in terms of handled cargo volume rankings. There is no other sea port which had a cargo volume increase this much. We continue to grow our position in the Baltic region, and are ranked second in overall cargo handling volume. The leader today is the Ust-Luga port, the main cargo corridor for Russian crude. I believe, however, that the embargo in force will turn the tables around here, too. The sanctions against Russia will deliver a blow when the cargo volume handled by this Russian port drops by 40% to 50%”, explained President Greinke.

The cargo volume handled at the Port of Gdańsk was generated with the contribution of CAPEX projects, especially in the Inner Port, where about 5 km of general quays have been retrofitted to serve routine cargo handling and directly drive the capacity to handle the extra volume.

“It is the Inner Port that proves the enormous effect of our investments in port infrastructure and supra-structure. The Inner Port quays handled 15M tons of cargo last year, compared to 9M tons not so long ago”, added President Greinke.

In the last 6 years, the value of the CAPEX projects completed by the Port of Gdańsk Authority SA and third parties (business partners, Gdańsk Harbour Master Office, and PKP PLK) broke the ceiling at 4.8 billion PLN. There are more projects planned and under construction, with a total value of more than 4.2 billion PLN.

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