Deep-sea container service at the Port of Gdansk

05.01.2010

There were some analysts who made light of this contract and many refused to believe it... The announcement of Maersk launching a regular shipping service from Shanghai to the DCT terminal at the Gdansk port has been a thorn in the side of many Baltic container terminals. Economy, however, cannot tolerate a vacuum and so... the impossible has become reality. The biggest deep-sea container vessel in the port's history arrived in Gdansk on 4 January, bringing the first load directly from China. After thirty-four days at sea, "Maersk Taikung", which has a carrying capacity of over 8,400 containers, discharged 344 of them in Gdansk and took on board 500. Within two months' time, it is set complete a series of regular connections visiting 20 ports. In order to ensure a weekly service (as guaranteed under the contract with the port), with Gdansk recognized as the major Baltic port, Maersk Line employs 10 vessels with a tonnage of over 8,000 TEU's.

Today's event may have a significant effect on the future of the Gdansk port, similar to the one of thirty-five years ago triggered by the launch of the fuels and coal terminals at the Northern Port. Hastened by the strikes at Gdynia-based BCT, the decision by Maersk Line - the world's leading container carrier - to extend their Asia-Europe AE10 service directly to Gdansk appears to represent an equally far-reaching solution devised not only to mitigate the effects of the global financial crunch. The already increasing interest in the service confirms that the majority of containers unloaded at DCT will be shipped from Gdansk via feeder connections to Scandinavian and Russian ports. Such liner services will be launched in January by Maersk as well as Unifeeder. Bestowing on Gdansk the role of a container hub will at the same time be conducive to regaining by this port the leading position on the Baltic Sea and speeding up the DCT expansion.

The Australian fund Macquarie Group of Companies - while making investments in a container terminal stretched on an area of 40 hectares owned by the Gdansk port - predicted a target throughput capacity of up to 4 million TEU's. A 650-metre long quay with a maximum depth of 16.5 metres, capacious (22.5 thou. TEU's) storage yards and warehouses (7,200 sq. metres), a large parking area for trucks, a long rail siding (2 x 620 metres), Post-Panamax and RTG cranes, a Ro-Ro ramp, an electronic management system, an excellent location at the junction of the major transport routes and ice-free conditions during the winter already today put Gdansk-based DCT in the lead of the Polish container terminals. Over the two years of the terminal's operation, carriers operating regular shipping services with DCT such as Containerships, IMCL/BCL, Team Lines, Unifeeder and Maersk became convinced of the truth of this fact. The terminal, which threw down the gauntlet to the Western European ports and today hosts Maersk Taikung, has won a chance to disprove to the benefit of Gdansk the validity of the cliché that Poland's top container port facility is... Hamburg in Germany.