The construction of the container terminal at the Port of Gdansk is entering its decisive implementation phase. This has been made possible by the finalization of investment financing talks in recent days. The container terminal in Gdansk will be financed by Macquarie Bank (Australia) and DVB Bank AG (Germany). The general contractor is the German construction group Hochtief.
– Finalizing the talks – emphasizes Andrzej Kasprzak, President of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA – in practice means that the investor is commencing construction work on the largest maritime economy investment in Poland. A container terminal with parameters such as the one being built at the Port of Gdansk is extremely necessary for the Polish economy. Globally, 350 million containers are transported by sea annually, and revenues from container handling have grown by an average of 10% per year over the current decade. Let us recall: in 2004, 377,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) were handled at the Port of Gdynia, and over 41,000 TEU at the Port of Gdansk. The growth dynamics of turnover are significant, and the opportunities related to increasing the share in global transport are enormous. Hence the invaluable role of the investment being implemented at the Port of Gdansk. The container terminal with a target handling capacity of 1 million TEU responds to both current and future market needs related to the role of the Port of Gdansk in the Trans-European Transport Corridor North-South No. VI.
The DCT terminal will be located on an artificially filled pier 710 m long and 315 m wide. Its area will be 32 hectares. The sand used to create the pier will come from dredging works. On the western side of the pier, there will be a handling quay 40 m wide with two berths for container ships. The first section of the quay will be 385 m long, with a depth of 16.5 m alongside. At the second section, 295 m long, the depth will reach 13.5 m. On the eastern and western sides, the pier will be protected by a breakwater made of riprap and reinforced concrete blocks. A reinforced concrete surface will be laid on the top layer of the pier. Under the quay, the ground will be reinforced with steel piles serving as foundations for the rails of four quay cranes with a 50 m outreach for unloading containers from ships. On the pier deck, there will be a container storage yard operated by self-propelled, rubber-tired gantry cranes. In addition to the two berths for container ships, a berth with a slipway and ramp for handling ro-ro ships will be built perpendicular to the pier. Beyond the pier, storage yards for empty containers, a four-track railway siding, and an access road with a road junction and a maneuvering area for trucks will be built.
The assumed handling capacity in the first stage will be 500,000 TEU. It will therefore be the largest deep-water container terminal in Poland. The construction cost is 190 million EUR, and the target handling capacity is 1 million TEU. It is expected that the first container ship will call at the terminal as early as 2006. The completion of the first stage of construction is planned for approximately 20 months from the start of construction work.
In the terminal’s hinterland, the construction of a modern logistics and distribution center is planned. In the first days of January 2005, the signatories of the letter of intent: the British investor DCT Gdansk SA, the Municipality of Gdansk, and the Port of Gdansk Authority SA expressed their will to create a logistics and distribution center on nearly 140 hectares. This is an opportunity for dozens of companies that will deal with the handling of containers, goods transported in containers, their refinement, processing, packaging, or transport.
