According to media reports and Bloomberg article published on October 13, 2022, Poland’s only deep-water port is getting investments that will boost its capacity by 50% in the next three years, as the trade gateway plays a bigger role in shipping routes that Russia’s war in Ukraine is redrawing.
DCT Gdansk is getting 864 million euros ($840 million) in financing to upgrade its two terminals and build a third, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is part of the consortium of lenders.
The port is the only deep-water terminal in the Baltic Sea able to receive ultra-large container vessels that move consumer goods and machinery between Europe and Asia. It’s also a nexus for rail shipments across the region, including freight from Ukraine. The investments will make the port one of the 10 biggest in Europe.
“It is currently experiencing high demand, with two existing terminals operating near full capacity,” the EBRD said in a statement Wednesday.
Terminal 3 will received its first ships by the end of 2024, with completion expected the following year, according to the EBRD, which was founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union to finance economic development in Eastern and Central Europe.
Stage one of the Gdansk expansion aims to add capacity to handle 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent container units, up from the current 2.9 million, it said.
Rich History
The port city has a history of creating headaches for Moscow.
Gdansk was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement that helped overthrow Communist rule in the former Soviet bloc in the 1980s. Now, its upgraded infrastructure may offer an economic bulwark that helps ensure consumer goods and commodities keep flowing across the region.
The Schwedt refinery near the Polish border supplies Berlin and much of eastern Germany with fuel. It currently gets its oil via the Druzhba pipeline directly from Russia, a route that won’t be available for Germany once the embargo takes effect in December.
The northern leg of the Druzhba network, which supplies Germany and Poland, found a leak on Wednesday. Polish authorities said they believe it was an accident. European authorities are on high alert for any attacks on infrastructure since the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September.
Nandita Parshad, the EBRD managing director for sustainable infrastructure, said in the statement that “global events of the past few years have demonstrated the crucial role logistics plays in economic security.”
