Cabotage to the rescue
Cabotage shipping is of lesser, though gradually increasing, importance. The relatively short and monotonous coastline, as well as weak interconnections between Polish ports, mean that there are no conditions for the development of freight transport. Nevertheless, the opening of the country to foreign markets means that a market for cabotage passenger transport is gradually emerging as a component of maritime tourism and recreation. This is clearly visible in the waters of both lagoons, and gradually every local port is beginning to strive for the attraction that a sea trip, especially a foreign one, provides. The development of this form of shipping is a significant factor in activating local ports and increases the tourist attractiveness of the coast.
The transformation is to blame for everything
While maritime shipping is always part of a global system, seaports, regardless of their sometimes very significant international importance, are always part of the transport system and a component of the country’s transport infrastructure. In practice, it is the possession of a seaport that determines the possibilities of demonstrating activity at sea in most areas. Hence, stimulating the development of ports is one of the most important tasks of the state’s maritime policy. This was well known in the Second Polish Republic, where the decision to build the port in Gdynia preceded the state’s involvement in creating a national fleet by several years.
The years of systemic transformation significantly changed the tasks of the main Polish ports. Serious changes have occurred in their basic function – transport. In 1979, which was the year of maximum turnover, 69.7 million tons were transshipped in Polish ports. In recent years, this volume has stabilized at the level of 41 – 42 million tons. However, this is only an apparent regression if one takes into account the structure of these transshipments.
Practically the entire decline in turnover concerns raw materials (with the exception of crude oil). This testifies to a fundamental change in the structure of the Polish economy. In the coming years, a further decline in coal transshipments in transport should be expected. This means the necessity of converting the existing port potential.
Maritime trade
Maritime trade is generally of the nature of foreign trade. In countries with a long coastline or in island countries, it can also constitute part of domestic trade. Examples include Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, or Norway, where significant quantities of goods are transported between their own ports.
In Poland, after the Second World War, maritime trade accounted for approx. 30% of total foreign trade, calculated by the value of turnover. Currently, there is a tendency for fundamental changes in the technique of this trade, which is increasingly becoming part of the logistics process, i.e., the optimization of the distribution of goods from the production stage to the end user. This is reflected in the gradual transformation of seaports into distribution and logistics centers. Stimulating these changes in Polish ports should be assessed as the main task of maritime policy in the field of maritime trade for the coming years.
Shipbuilding industry
The industrial sector most closely related to the country’s coastal location. Like maritime shipping, it is extremely strongly dependent on the global economic situation. Only a few countries, especially those maintaining a strong navy, can afford to maintain the shipbuilding industry somewhat detached from competitive conditions. In other cases, the state and future of this industry are determined by its efficiency compared to others. The decisive factors of this efficiency are the level of technology and wage costs. In Polish conditions, the share of wages in production costs in shipyards is 20%, compared to 30% in Europe, which is quite good.
Sea fishing
Alongside maritime transport and the shipbuilding industry, it is the most ‘maritime’ of the economic sectors related to the sea. From the point of view of technology and fishing grounds, it is divided into deep-sea and coastal, in the case of Poland – Baltic. In the sixties and seventies, deep-sea fishing was intensively developed in the country, and significant achievements were noted in this field. However, in the same period, the process of appropriating the seas began in the world, which led to the fact that countries located on inland seas practically lost the freedom of fishing, outside their own exclusive economic zone. The number of Polish trawlers decreased from 130 in 1975 to a few twenty years later. Everything indicates that it will not be possible for Polish enterprises to conduct these fisheries independently.
Only Baltic fishing has a permanent base. Fish processing is also an important factor in the economic activation of coastal regions. Its development will be increasingly related to the import of raw materials, especially of deep-sea origin. Nevertheless, it can be considered an important segment of the Polish food industry.
Tourism and recreation
In Poland, the importance of this sector is increased by the fact that the coastal strip consists of regions of structural unemployment related to the collapse of state agriculture and the lack of industry. However, these negative phenomena are an opportunity for tourism due to the purity of the air and, in some places, health resort qualities.
The desired development of maritime tourism requires the adaptation of all infrastructure components on the coast, i.e., installations necessary for environmental protection, access roads and airports, telecommunications installations, seaports, and beach protection against erosion.
Demand for tourist services is also a factor in the development of cabotage shipping. There is no other sector of the economy that would force such comprehensive civilizational progress. For example, the construction of a marina alone does not mean that a given town will be visited by yachts. It must be attractive to sailors. For such contacts result in the society’s attitude towards maritime affairs and its susceptibility to other forms of promoting the sea, such as popularization activities. Tourism is also the contact of coastal communities with communities from other regions and countries, which fosters self-identification and integration of these communities around their own center.
In the field of economic activity at sea and on the coast, one should strive, as far as possible, to use the public aid tools provided by the European Union structures. In Polish conditions, however, ownership transformations, and more precisely privatization, are of decisive importance.