Gdansk - Polish container giant on the Baltic Sea

12.02.2013

On February 11th, 2013 the Headquarters of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA received the participants and witnesses of a remarkable event. In the presence of Gdansk Pomerania region's media representatives, an agreement on increasing the Port of Gdansk's container handling potential was signed by the following: Jerzy Melaniuk, Vice-President of PGA SA (acting as One-Person Board since December 2012), Ryszard Mazur, PGA SA Proxy and Director of the Port Development Office and Boris Wenzel, President of DCT Gdansk accompanied by Adam Zolnowski, Chief Strategy and Board Attorney of DCT Gdansk. For months, the idea had been supported by all those interested in seeing Polish maritime economy entities establish a more significant position on the Baltic Sea.

The Land Lease Contract concerning 33 hectare of port land (signed by PGA SA and DCT Gdansk in January 2004) states that a pier shall be built in the adjoining waters and that a container terminal with a capacity of up to 1 million TEU a year shall be built. The guarantee of handling potential development was also cautiously included there, but hardly any study expected such a great handling dynamics that was shortly achieved by Deepwater Container Terminal in Gdansk. Just three years later, on October 1st, 2007, during the official opening ceremony of DCT, the necessity of further investments that would take over a significant part of the Baltic container market, was obvious to many. Analysing the directions of world and European trade, they estimated the chances for the Port of Gdansk to develop and increase its position. The "Development Strategy" adopted by PGA SA Board outlined the increase of container handling potential in the area between the Ore Pier and the newly built DCT Container Pier.

The plan to expand deepwater terminals in the Port of Gdansk could only be executed on June 30th, 2010, following the completion of legal procedures and regaining former Europort land. In January 2011, DCT Gdansk SA officially asked PGA SA Board to initiate talks. As a result of introductory arrangements and negotiations, on August 16th, 2011 DCT Gdansk pledged to lease land for the further expansion of the container terminal. This land is located to the west of the existing terminal and it is destined for expansion in PGA SA strategic plans.

The Board of PGA SA made a decision (by the Resolution of September 23rd, 2011) to start a procedure to sign the Land Lease Contract with DCT Gdansk. The contract was to broaden the former agreement. On October 7th, the Supervisory Board of PGA SA accepted this decision and on November 18th, 2011 the General Meeting of PGA SA agreed to withdraw from a tender procedure for leasing another 27 hectares to DCT Gdansk SA. On March 1st, 2012 both Parties signed a Letter of Intent on negotiations aiming to agree over the content of the future Land Lease Contract. In September 2012 Negotiation Groups initialled the text of the Contract which in turn made it possible to sign a Preliminary Contract whose appendix is the Definitive Land Lease Contract signed on February 11, 2013. Complicated regulatory requirements were thus fulfilled.

- In January this year, DCT handled more than 106 thousand TEU. I am satisfied that our terminal begins 2013 with such great results - commented Boris Wenzel thus revealing the completion of his Gdansk mission. It confirms that the decisions on our further investments have been right. I believe that DCT will stay on the success path and will continue to satisfy its customers.

In response, Jerzy Melaniuk thanked B. Wenzel for the 5 years of cooperation - I believe that Gdansk Deepwater Container Terminal owners will be satisfied with the results that all the money invested in Gdansk will bring. A container terminal in this part of the Baltic Sea must be profitable.

The results of DCT in Gdansk shocked the greatest sceptics analysing container turnover on the Baltic Sea in recent years. Nowadays none of them, however, tries to question Gdansk's position of the Baltic container hub. The value of goods handled in container terminals in the Ports of Gdansk and Gdynia, does not leave room for any discussion concerning the purpose of investing in maritime trade technology in Poland. And all the more, the legal and formal procedures, that are used to select reliable partners to continue our operator activities, must be transparent. Over 100 billion PLN "handled" annually in Gdansk - and in Gdynia alike - proves the international value of our ports, our pride and our obligation to provide Polish ports with competitive conditions for development in Baltic Europe (also in legislative terms). Wise investment and operation momentum of DCT - a reliable partner in shaping the new reality for the Port of Gdansk - deserves to be trusted. However, we need to have such certainty both in Warsaw and in Brussels.

Janusz Kasprowicz
PGA SA PR Officer