Maritime transport
The most obvious opportunity provided by a country’s seaside location is the possibility of engaging in maritime transport. This is a fundamental branch of transport serving international trade and is decisive for global-scale commerce. At the same time, this transport is a source of demand for a range of services and products manufactured, for example, by the shipbuilding industry. Maritime transport includes two closely related elements: shipping and ports. However, it should be noted that this connection is functional at a global level, not at the level of a specific country. One can easily imagine a country possessing a merchant fleet and engaging in shipping without access to the sea (e.g., Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia), or possessing ports without a fleet and using the services of foreign ships. Therefore, the opportunities inherent in maritime transport should be considered separately for shipping and for ports.
Maritime shipping is traditionally attributed two functions – instrumental and intermediary-earning. The instrumental function consists of engaging in shipping to defend the interests of one’s own foreign trade, and historically speaking, of treating the merchant fleet as a second tool, alongside the navy, for overseas economic expansion.
Such treatment of shipping stems from the struggle for the division of the world and the dominance of the mercantilist school in economic thought. At its core lies the assumption that one’s own shipping is better than purchasing transport services on the global market. This view was and is promoted in countries with low economic competitiveness or those deliberately isolating their economy from the international market. It was the main guideline for the development of the merchant fleet in socialist countries with non-convertible currencies.
In the People’s Republic of Poland, for example, there was a so-called planned indicator of the share of one’s own shipping in servicing the country’s foreign trade. The costs of such an endeavor did not play a major role. This was particularly strongly reflected in liner shipping, where non-economic considerations often decided the establishment of lines. The fleet of PLO, the main Polish liner shipowner, reached 177 ships with a total deadweight of 1,028 thousand DWT in 1975 and 170 ships with a deadweight of 1,148 thousand DWT in 1985, accounting for one-third of the total tonnage.
In the conditions of economic globalization, which has further intensified the effects of this feature of maritime shipping, the instrumental function can practically only be realized in states that consciously cut themselves off from the market and the international division of labor. In this state of affairs, maritime shipping can be considered part of the transport services sector provided for export or within the transport system of a given country, so-called cabotage. In Polish conditions, the first of these roles definitely dominates. Referring to the tradition of shipping as an instrument of actions other than direct export of services. The situation from the years of the Second Polish Republic, when over 73% of Polish foreign trade used sea routes, did not repeat itself after the war and has even less chance of occurring in the future.
The main trading partner of Poland is Europe. After 1989, what changed was that the European Union took the place of the COMECON, and Germany took the place of the former USSR. However, this does not have to mean a complete loss of the importance of maritime shipping for the Polish economy. On the contrary. The relatively low competitiveness of production on the international market and the resulting permanent trade balance deficit force us to look for other means of achieving a current account balance. A condition for utilizing this opportunity is maintaining the competitiveness of Polish shipowners in the conditions of progressing globalization.