BTJ 3/2007 - Baltic Transport Journal

Baltic Transport 1733-6732 

Journal ISSN 

№ 3/2007 (17), MAY/JUNE 

b i m o n t h l y - d a i l y c o m p a n i o n 

60 PLN (VAT 0%) 

Official media partner of The Tall Ships’ Races 

Motorways of the seas 

Too much of a good thing for too long? 

Maritime Transport Links Between Poland and the United Kingdom 

Seminar Programme and Presentations 

Our special report 

Asia goes Baltic

Promoting Cooperation ....................................................................................................5 

Maritime Economy Ministry of Poland 

Foreign investors are welcome ......................................................................................5 

Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London 

Awaiting an investor ..........................................................................................................6 

Port Gdański Eksploatacja 

Development of transport on the Baltic Sea .............................................................6 

PricewaterhouseCoopers Poland 

Set course for Gdańsk ........................................................................................................7 

Port of Gdańsk Authority SA 

Up to two million containers per year .........................................................................8 

DCT Gdańsk SA 

Time for Poland, time for Gdynia ...................................................................................9 

Port of Gdynia 

On Course for Investments ........................................................................................... 10 

The Ports of Szczecin and Świnoujście 

All kinds of containers .................................................................................................... 11 

A talk with Jacek Wiśniewski, Euroafrica – Shipping Lines 

What’s New ......................................................................................................................... 13 

2007 spring and summer transport events calendar .......................................... 17 

Economic Development trends 

in the Baltic States at the beginning of 2007 ......................................................... 18 

What drives oceanic carriers to the Baltic Sea? ..................................................... 20 

Container conference in Gdańsk 

Too much of a good thing for too long? .................................................................. 22 


Silence instead of a discussion .................................................................................... 24 

Reading the Green Card (4) 

No transit to an open sea .............................................................................................. 26 

Elbląg – the forgotten port in the south-east of the Baltic Sea 

Asia Goes Baltic – our special report ....................................................... 27 

Baltic Ports Organization Newsletter ..................................................... 39 

Far from Meantime at Greenwich! .............................................................................. 43 

Gdańsk With a New Face ................................................................................................ 44 

Rapid Changes in the Thousand-Year Old Port 

The dry freight and tanker market ............................................................................. 46 

Beware of NIS ..................................................................................................................... 48 

Ballast water danger in the Baltic Sea 

Tall Ships on the Baltic Sea ............................................................................................ 51 

The 51 st edition of the Tall Ships’ Races 

Low-cost airlines and regional airports on the way up ....................................... 52 

Polish airports – the fastest increase in passenger numbers in the world 

From the Sea onto the Tracks ....................................................................................... 55 

Container Trains from the Ports in Klaipėda and Kaliningrad 

Logistex in Łódź ................................................................................................................. 57 

A new name on the logistics trade fair map 

Kaunas is searching for its image ................................................................................ 58 

Plans for an intermodal terminal and a logistic technological platform 

Take a look at the Black Sea and Caspian Sea region ........................................... 60 

A market as great as the steppes of Euroasia 

Transport Miscellany ....................................................................................................... 62 

Contents 

3/2007 | Baltic Transport Journal | 3

Editorial 

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Baltic Transport 

Journal 

Editor-in-Chief 

DARIUSZ SZRETER 

dariusz.szreter@baltictransportjournal.com 

Contributing Writers 

and Update Correspondents 

PIOTR B. STAREŃCZAK, BILL MOSES, 

MANIK MEHTA, LESZEK WILCZYŃSKI, 

HENRYK ĆWIKLIŃSKI, CAMILLA GREIFF, 

ERNEST CZERMAŃSKI, MAREK BŁUŚ, 

KUBA ŁOGINOW, JOANNA KITOWSKA 

English Language Editors 

ALISON NISSEN, KRYSTIAN BENNICH, JACEK MIKKE 

Design and DTP 

MEDON 

Art Director 

DANUTA SAWICKA-ROMANOWSKA 

Graphic Designer 

MONIKA RÓŻYCKA 

Publisher 

BALTIC PRESS SP. Z O.O. 

Chairman 

DOROTA SOBIENIECKA 

dorota@baltictransportjournal.com 

Address: 8 Pułaskiego Street 

81-368 Gdynia, Poland 

office@baltictransportjournal.com 

tel. +48 58 627 23 94, tel. +48 58 627 23 95 

fax +48 58 621 69 66 

Internet: www.baltictransportjournal.com 

Marketing & Sales Department 

PIOTR TRUSIEWICZ 

piotr@baltictransportjournal.com 

MICHAŁ ZIÓŁKOWSKI 

michal@baltictransportjournal.com 

Subscriptions, Tradefairs, Conferences 

KAROLINA KARPIŃSKA 

karolina@baltictransportjournal.com 

Print 

MEDON 

Address: Medon sp. j. 

ul. Kartuska 245, 80-125 Gdańsk, Poland 

e-mail: medon@medon.gda.pl 

Internet: www.medon.gda.pl 

Circulation: 2,500 

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Cover phoro: source sxc.hu 

Photos on pages 3, 24,27: source sxc.hu 

Subscriptions can be ordered 

in Kolporter offices in Poland. 

For more information call 0801-205-555 or visit 

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4 | Baltic Transport Journal | 3/2007 

Dear Readers, 

When we started publishing the Baltic Transport Journal, it was obvious 

for us that we want it to be more than just a magazine. Our intention 

was not merely informing and inspiring our readers but also connecting 

them, helping them to get to know each other better and to give them an 

opportunity to do business together. And, to realize these goals, publishing is not just enough. 

That is why on May 30 th with the cooperation of the Polish Embassy in London, the Baltic 

Transport Journal will organize a seminar on the maritime transport links between Poland 

and the United Kingdom. 

These links have a long tradition dating as far back as the 14 th century when salesmen 

and sailors from Gdańsk regularly visited London and other ports on the eastern coast of 

Great Britain, selling grain and timber, and coming back home with woollen cloth. British 

tradesmen settled in Gdańsk, doing their business and even having a kind of self-government 

for their community. Their presence in the city is commemorated by the traditional 

district names of Old Scots and New Scots. In those times establishing transport and 

trade relations wasn’t easy and certainly was not free of tensions, even the use of economic 

sanctions by both sides forced privileges on their opponents. We, in the beginning of the 

21 st century, are in a much better position. We can concentrate on purely business offers. 

In the first section of the BTJ, we have published short presentations of six Polish-based 

transport companies we have invited to our London seminar and a market analysis on 

the perspectives of cargo flow progress between Poland and the UK prepared by the Polish 

branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

This is the first, but certainly not the last time, we will get out of the editorial office with 

our ideas to meet our readers. 

Another opportunity to meet us will be at the Transport Logistic Fair in Munich in June, a 

place which is a must for anyone in the European transport industry. Two years ago we were 

there as a debutant. Now with almost three years of successful experience, we return to meet 

you with our offer. Feel invited and please visit our stand (no. 130, hall B4). 

Dariusz Szreter 

Company index 

Acer Finland 34; Acrodea Inc. 34; Actia Forum 21; A.C.Toepfer 6; AIDA Cruises 42; Air China 34; Allied Telesyn 

34; Arctic Paper 10; Baltic Container Lines 28; Baltic Exchange 33; Belintertrans 55; Belgian Transics NV 57; 

Bergesen 31; BLG Logistics Automobile 30; BT Varastotekniikka 34; BW Gas 31; Cadbury 11; CMC Zawiercie 6; 

Celsa 6; Central Systems & Automation 21; Chinese Trade Trust 36; China Cargo Airlines 33; China International 

Industry and Commerce 37; China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) 28-29; China Shipping Agency 29; China 

Shipping Group 28-29; Chipolbrok 28; Copenhagen Malmö Port 42; COSCO Container Lines 28, 34; Cosfim Oy 

28, 34; CTO 49; Dachser 57; Deepwater Container Terminal 5, 7, 8, 20, 21, 44; Delta Energy Systems 34; Det Norske 

Veritas 21; Deutsche Binnenrederei AG 14; DIS 57; DLS 57; Dover Harbour 43; Drewry Shipping Consultants 

43; E.H. Harms 6, 30; Embe Systems 34; EUKOR 31; Euroafrica Shipping Lines Ltd.5, 11; Euroship Services 43; 

Evergreen Group 28; FGUP “Rosmorport” 40; Finnair 33, 34; Foxconn 34; Freeport of Riga 42; Fujitsu Services 

34; Fujitsu Siemens Computers IT Product 34; Gdańsk Container Terminal 44; Gdynia Container Terminal 9, 37; 

Gearbulk 31; GNER 43; Hanjin 28; Hitachi Data Systems 34; Honda 34; Hutchison Port Holding Group 9, 37; 

Höegh Autoliner 6; Hyundai Merchant Machine 28, 31, 34; Hyundai Motor 31; IKEA10; Indorami 36; Jerid 33; 

John Nurminen Group 28, 34; Jukos 36; Kaunas Intermodal Terminal 58-59; Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha 34; Kerry 

logistics 33; KGJS 31; Kia Motors 31; K- Line 6, 28, 30, 31 , 34; Konica Minolta Business Solutions 34; Korean Air 

Cargo 33; Lenovo Company 34; LG Ekspedicija 55; LG Electronics 10; Liski 55; Louis Dreyfus Commodities 6; LR 

Fairplay 43; Mac Andrews 11; Maritime Protection Solutions 43; Mazeikiu Nafta 19, 36; M.I.S.C. 28; Mitsui-OSK 

Lines 28, 31; Mittal Arcelor 6; MOL 28; Morskoy Fasad 41; MSC 20; NCC 13; NEC Finland 34; Nissan 6, 34; NYK 28, 

30, 34; Odratrans 15; Olympic Delivery 43; Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) 29, 30; Orion Global PET 36; 

PAN Ocean 28; Petersburg Oil Terminal 40; Peter W. Lampke GmbH 29; Philips 10; PKN Orlen 19, 36; PLL LOT 52; 

Pol-Aqua 37; Polish Ocean Lines (PLO) 11; Polnord SA 37; Pomeranian Special Economic Zone 44; Port of Århus 

20; Port of Arnhem 62; Port of Götenborg 20; Port of Gdańsk Authority 5, 6, 7, 8, 44; Port Gdański Eksploatacja 

5, 6; Port of Gdynia Authority 5, 9, 31, 37; Port of Hamburg 20; Port of Kiel 42; Port of Klaipėda 36, 55; Port of 

Turku 42; PricewaterhouseCoopers 4, 5; Procom Group 37; Raben Group 57; RailWorld 59; Rodriquez Cantieri 

Navali SpA 43; Russian Rail 15; Ryanair 52, 53; Sanko 28; Samsung 34; SAS 16, 33; Schenker Cargo 42; SeaFrance 

43; Sealink British Ferries 43; Seaport in Elbląg 26; Shanghai Industrial Investment 35; Sharp Corporation 34; 

ShipShape International 43; Singapore Airlines 33; Sinotrans 28; Stena Line 9, 14; St. Petersburg Maritime Port 

Administration 39, 40-41; Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports Authority 5, 10; Telefonica Kable 10; Toshiba Europe 

34, 57; Toyota 6, 10, 31, 34; United Baltic Corporation 11; United European Car carriers 30; VLCC 13; VW 

Group 6; Wallenius Lines 6, 31; Wilhelmsen Lines 6, 31; William mercer 37; Wizzair 52; Worldwide Group 31; 

Yageo Finland 34; Yang Ming Line 28; Yeoman 6

Ministry of Maritime Economy of the Republic of Poland 

Promoting Cooperation 

Cooperation between Poland and the United Kingdom 

has a long tradition. Modern Polish-British trade contacts 

are also developing successfully. 

The construction of the Deepwater Container Terminal 

in the Northern Port of Gdańsk is an outstanding example 

of a UK investment in the Polish port infrastructure. Nevertheless, 

Poland would like to intensify the present cooperation and is encouraging 

institutions, firms and ventures with British capital to 

continue the positive trends. 

I am certain that the Baltic Sea Region, which is the central 

point for nine Central and Eastern European countries, with their 

high economic potential and membership in integration structures, 

may become one of the priority directions for the UK maritime economy. Poland needs the United 

Kingdom and I strongly believe that also Poland is needed by our British partners. An important area 

of joint ventures is the modernization of the sea ports in the context of increasing their transhipment 

capacities, but also the search for effective methods of preventing terrorist attacks, illegal immigration, 

and contamination of maritime environment. 

Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank the British-Polish Chamber of Commerce 

which has been actively stimulating, enhancing and developing bilateral economic contacts for 

15 years now. I am proud that the winner of the Company of the Year 2006 Prize, awarded by the 

British-Polish Chamber of Commerce in the category of the best direct investors is the British 

firm, Deepwater Container Terminal Gdańsk SA. 

Rafał Wiechecki 

Minister of Maritime Economy 

Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London 

Foreign investors are welcome 

Poland is the largest market in Central Europe and is regarded 

as one of the top European destinations for new 

investment and expansion projects. Foreign investors in 

Poland are welcomed and presented with a number of 

investment incentives adjusted to their individual needs. 

Poland’s present economic performance is outstanding: 5.8% GDP 

growth in 2006 and, at the same time, a record foreign investment inflow 

of 14.7 billion USD. According to the latest data provided by the 

European Commission, further growth is projected in 2007: 6% GDP 

at an inflation rate of 2%. 

British-Polish economic and trade cooperation is developing extremely well. According to figures 

published by the British Office of National Statistics, the value of bilateral goods trade between 

Poland and the UK reached 6.8 billion GBP by the end of 2006, up by an unprecedented 72% from 

3.9 billion GBP in 2005. Thus, Poland went up in the ranking of the most important export markets 

of Great Britain from position 26 in 2005 to 17 in 2006, thus outstripping traditional British partners 

such as India, Australia and the Republic of South Africa. 

Foreign investments have been a crucial element in Polish economic development throughout 

the whole period of transformation. The accumulated value of FDI in Poland reached 90 billion EUR 

by the end of 2006. We also hope that British investors will considerably increase their presence in 

Poland, including the maritime and sea-related sectors, especially given that the Polish government 

is extremely keen to see more goods carried by sea and handled by its own ports. Similarly to countries 

throughout Europe, due to environmental reasons, we wish to attract importers and exporters by 

improving the competitiveness of Polish ports and related infrastructure. 

Barbara Tuge-Erecińska 

Ambassador of the Republic of Poland 

BTJ London Seminar 

Programme of the 

“MARITIME TRANSPORT LINKS 

BETWEEN POLAND AND THE UNITED 

KINGDOM” 

seminar 

30 May 2007 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

15:00 

Embassy of the Republic of Poland 

Welcome words by H.E. Ambassador 

Ms Barbara Tuge–Erecińska 

15:05 

Maritime Economy Ministry of Poland 

Key Speaker – Minister Rafał Wiechecki 

15:15 

PricewaterhouseCoopers Poland 

Introduction and general assessment by 

Mr Antoni Tymiński (PWC Partner) 

INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS 

15:30 

Port of Gdańsk Authority 

(Zarząd Morskiego Portu Gdańsk S.A.) 

Mr Krzysztof Urbaś, 

Development Director 

15:45 

Port of Gdańsk Cargo Logistics Ltd. 

(Port Gdański Eksploatacja Sp. z o.o.) 

Mr Marek Frąckowski, 

President of the Board 

15:55 

Deepwater Container Terminal Gdańsk 

(DCT Gdańsk S.A.) 

Mr Derek Peters, 

Sales & Marketing Director 

16:10 

Port of Gdynia Authority SA 

(Zarząd Morskiego Portu Gdynia SA) 

Mr Janusz Jarosiński, 

Vice-President of the Board 

16:25 

Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports 

Authority (Zarząd Morskich Portów 

Szczecin i Świnoujście S.A.) 

Mr Krzysztof Pilarski, 

Commercial Manager 

16:40 

Euroafrica Shipping Lines Ltd. 

(Euroafrica Linie Żeglugowe Sp. z o.o.) 

Mr Jacek Wiśniewski, 

Executive Shipping Director 

16:55 

Q&A 

17:15 

Drinks and canapés 



Awaiting an investor 

Port Gdański Eksploatacja (PGE), the 

biggest cargo operator at the Polish 

Ports, is awaiting privatization. 

Almost 100 percent (98,28%) of 

the company’s shares are held by Port of Gdańsk 

Authority SA (Zarząd Portu Gdańsk). In April 

2007, negotiations with investors interested in 

buying these shares were resumed as part of the 

ongoing process of PGE’s privatization. 

Port Gdański Eksploatacja sp. z o.o. (PGE) 

has been on the market since 1991. In the beginning 

the firm was engaged in marketing, 

consulting services, and in soliciting cargo for 

the whole Port of Gdańsk. In 1999 and 2000, 

it incorporated three cargo operating companies 

that functioned in the inner part of the 

port and it also bought out the assets of another 

bankrupt operator. Since that time the company 

has mainly been engaged in providing 

handling and storing services for companies 

dealing with general and bulk cargo. 

In 2006, PGE handled over 3.8 million 

tons of cargo achieving consecutive year a 

good financial result. 

Development of transport on the Baltic Sea 

According to the data accumulated by 

the Institute of Shipping Economics 

and Logistics (Bremen and Bremerhaven), 

since 1997 the Baltic ports have 

been characterized by the highest rate of growth of 

cargo shipments among the 84 largest European 

ports.There are a few factors which determine the 

further growth of these ratios and which justify 

the forecast that the whole Baltic region will be the 

fastest-growing area in the EU in the next years. 

There are two groups of countries operating 

in the Baltic region. The first group consists 

of Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden 

and Finnland, which belong to the Western 

and Northern Baltic subregion. These countries 

play a significant role in the global trade, 

with Germany being the undisputed leader. 

The second group of countries consists of Estonia, 

Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Poland. 

They belong to the Eastern and Southern Baltic 

subregion and constitute a very absorptive 

market for both investment and consumer 

goods. Moreover, their share in global trade is 

also growing significantly. In view of the latest 

data, we can expect synergies in the region, 

as well as a further dynamic growth of cargo 


The company employs 711 high experienced 

staff; owns numerous specialized port 

equipment (58 shore cranes, 36 mobile cranes 

including 100 mts capacity, over 200 rolling 

stock i.e. tractors, forklifttrucks etc). Moreover, 

in June, PGE will install its own new STS gantry 

crane at the Container Terminal. 

PGE operates on the area of 1,030,000 sq. 

mtr (including 50,000 covered) and 5,600 running 

mtrs of quays: 

1. Port Duty Free Zone (two wharves of an 

length of 1,171 meters capable of receiving 

vessels with the 8.4 meter draught, 11,000 

square meters of covered area, 16,265 

square meters of open storage) 

2. Westerplatte Ferry Terminal (200 meters 

of mooring places for vessels of an 8.4-meter 

draught) and the Westerplatte Wharf 

(length: around 450 meters, vessel draught: 

8.6 meters, an 8,000-square meter warehouse 

and 12,000 square meters of storage area). 

3. Inner port Container Terminal (a 393 meter 

wharf for vessels of a 9.6-meter draught, 

34,122 square meters of storage area). 

shipments on the Baltic Sea, which is the natural 

link between the two subregions. 

Another important factor, which could 

contribute to a growth in cargo shipments on 

the Baltic Sea in the nearest future, is the fact 

that the land transport infrastructure in the 

whole region is becoming overloaded, and is 

still underdeveloped in the countries of the 

Eastern and Southern Baltic subregion. For 

some areas maritime transport links may also 

remain a competitive alternative to their land 

equivalents irrespective of the development 

of land transport infrastructure due to the 

geographical localisation of trade partners (eg. 

Poland-Sweden). 

Despite significant growth in cargo shipped 

through the Baltic ports, until recently this sea 

was perceived as a peripheral area. The growing 

containerization of maritime transport in recent 

years, which supports the development of intermodal 

transport methods, could prove an effective 

way of increasing the share of Baltic transport 

in global maritime transport. The port operators 

on the Polish coast have noticed the potential for 

container transport development. This is reflected 

by the numerous investments aimed at a signifi- 

4. Oliwskie Wharf (length: 696 meters, vessel 

draught: 10 meters, three warehouses 

Gdańsk): with 17,000 square meters in 

warehouses and open storage of 23,000 

square meters) 

5. Wiślany Wharf (two berths of an overall 

length of 989 meters, max. vessel draught: 

10,2 meters, three warehouses with a 12,796 

sq.mtr area , 42,000 sq.mtr open storage and 

grain elevator for 8,500 mts of grain) 

6. Górniczy Terminal (three wharves of an 

overall length of 1,850 meters, max. vessel 

draught: 10.2 meters, 120,000 square meters 

of heavy storage and light storage area) 

PGE handles such cargo as: new cars, containers, 

steel and iron products, unitized commodities 

(big bags, pallets, bags, cardboard boxes), 

grains and feeding stuffs, scrapmetal, coal 

and coke, other dry bulk cargo (clinker, dolomites, 

feldspar, iron ore, fertilizers) project cargo 

and, what is also worth mentioning, it undertakes 

handling of dangerous and military cargo. 

Company cooperates on a regular basis 

with more than hundred and fifty clients such 

as: Mittal Arcelor, CMC Zawiercie, Celsa, Louis 

Dreyfus Commodities, A.C.Toepfer, Nissan, 

Toyota, VW Group, E.H Harms, Yeoman, Wallenius 

Wilhelmsen, “K” Line, Höegh Autoliner. 

Joanna Kitowska 

cant increase in the handling capacity of container 

terminals located on the Polish coast. 

The infrastructural projects in the Polish 

ports, with support from the European funds, 

give Poland a chance of becoming a central element 

of the transport route connecting Northern 

and Western Europe with such countries as Italy, 

Austria, the Czech Republic, Byelorussia and the 

Black Sea region. However, it would be impossible 

to connect these regions with an intermodal 

transport route without significant investment in 

the Polish road and railway networks. The most 

important road projects include i.e construction 

of motorways connecting the Świnoujście- 

Szczecin and Gdańsk sea port centres with the 

border crossings between Poland and the Czech 

Republic. As far as the railway infrastructure is 

concerned, the most important tasks are the 

modernization of railways from Warsaw to Gdynia 

and Świnoujście/Szczecin to Wrocław. 

It is also reasonable to believe that the recent 

UEFA decision granting the the Euro 2012 finals 

to Poland and the Ukraine, will provide a strong 

stimulus to accelerate road projects in Poland. 

Bartosz Baca, Antoni Tymiński

BTJ London Seminar


Up to two million 

containers per year 

DCT Gdańsk, the new deepwater 

container terminal for the Baltic 

is a very spectacular international 

investment in Poland. DCT 

terminal’s annual capacity will be 

500,000 TEUs on completion of phase one. 

The Port of Gdańsk Authority has selected 

the management team DCT (Deepwater Container 

Terminal) Gdańsk Ltd, to construct and 

operate the new deep sea container terminal in 

Gdańsk, Poland. This team is incorporated as 

DCT Gdańsk SA in Poland. Negotiations with 

the Port Authority resulted in a lease agreement 

providing an initial 30+30-year term 

with an option to renew for an additional period 

of 30 years. DCT will be the largest of its 

kind in the Baltic. 

Phase one of the project will entail building 

the initial container terminal, with a maximum 

capacity of 500,000 TEU per annum and 

a roll-on-roll-off berth capacity of 160,000 

TEU. Phase Two of the project will increase the 

DCT terminal’s capacity to handle one million 

TEU per annum. Through next two phases it 

will be able to reach 2 mln TEU capacity. 

Demand for consumer goods and trade 

with other EU countries is expected to show 

an increased rate of growth following Poland’s 

accession to the EU in 2004. The primary 

mode of transport for consumer goods 

is sea-borne container traffic. Drewry Shipping 

Consultants predict that container traffic 

in Poland will grow faster than the worldwide 

average of 9% per annum. Currently, 

Poland has five container terminals serving a 

population in excess of 38 million. In comparison, 

Britain has over 15 container terminals 

serving in population of ca. 59 million. 

Early indications from shipping lines indicate 

that there is significant pent-up demand for an 

independent, deep-sea, modern container terminal 

at Gdańsk. 

Using DCT Gdańsk as a hub is attractive 

to regional carriers sailing from North- 

West Europe, the Benelux and the UK. DCT 

Gdańsk SA will offer 24/7 working, a facility 

that is not always available in Baltic ports, 

and therefore the shipping lines will be able 

to use larger vessels and have the confidence 

that they will be turned round quickly. DCT 

Gdańsk SA will be handling both European 


DCT Gdańsk SA will be able to handle the largest container ships entering the Baltic Sea 

short sea carriers sailing on routes covering 

the Mediterranean, Iberia and UK/North 

Continental ports, and feeder operators 

transporting deep sea boxes between the major 

North Sea ports and the Baltic. 

Smaller feeders will link DCT Gdańsk 

with other ports, some of which perhaps do 

not offer the same flexibility or are suffering 

from time to time with congestion of facilities. 

Poland provides a gateway to Central and 

Eastern Europe for Deepsea seaborne traffic 

– this represents a potential market of some 

300 million people. Gdańsk has unique deepsea 

direct access to the Baltic, meaning that the 

new container terminal in Gdańsk will be able 

to handle the largest ships that visit the Baltic 

Sea. DCT Gdańsk SA benefits from deep-water 

(16.5m+) access at all stages of the tide and 

remains ice-free throughout the winter. 

DCT Gdańsk will benefit from onsite rail connections 

across Poland and its neighboring countries. 

The proposed new A1 highway will offer excellent 

road connections from Gdańsk, across the 

newly constructed bridge over the river Vistula. 

As a deep-sea terminal, DCT Gdańsk SA 

Photo: DCT Gdańsk 

will be able to handle the largest containers 

and cars carrying ships; however, these are not 

envisaged in the short-term at DCT Gdańsk. 

Initially, DCT Gdańsk SA is mainly expecting 

feeder ships to call at DCT Gdańsk. 

Obviously, the decision as to the size of the 

ship and frequency of service will be a matter 

for DCT Gdańsk customers’ shipping lines. 

The terminal will handle all types of containers 

including tanks, refrigerated, flat racks, 

etc. Rail block trains will provide scheduled 

deliveries to and from major centralized inland 

distribution depots throughout Poland 

and neighboring countries. 

The initial feedback from a number of shipping 

lines has been extremely supportive and 

their interest is expected to crystallize into new 

services into Gdańsk. A number of potential 

customers have given an estimate of the number 

of containers they are likely to put through DCT 

Gdańsk in its first year and in subsequent years 

and even at this early stage, these estimates are 

very much in line with DCT’s estimates on traffic. 

JK

Time for Poland, time for Gdynia 

The Port of Gdynia is the number one 

Polish container and ro-ro port, offering 

frequent regular services to 

the main European hub ports and 

Scandinavia. 

Gdynia also develops its ferry traffic within 

the very successful route to Karlskrona operated 

with 3 sailings per day by Stena Line. 

One of the port’s most important investments 

for the nearest future is to develop 

the Logistic Centre with the unique location 

next to the container terminals. Strong 

market position of Gdynia as one of the Baltic 

container hubs with fast growing traffic 

creates good prospects for logistic services. 

Besides, the geographical location creates 

opportunity for Gdynia to be the centre for 

modal shift in The VI-th Trans European 

Corridor. Present improvements in domestic 

rail and road transportation network as well 

as a growing number of private multimodal 

operators enable Gdynia to offer more efficient 

solutions to The North – Central Europe 

logistic chain. The optimistic news is 

particularily a running construction of the 

National Highway A-1, connecting Scandinavia 

to Poland’s southern borders, directed 

towards South-Eastern Europe and crossing 

many Polish and foreign industrial and 

economic centres. Multimodal operations 

will be developed soon, after the planned 

improvements in both local and national 

rail infrastructure – e.g. the main line E65 

towards Warsaw and the Silesian region. 

The present operations in the Port of Gdynia 

are supported by a range of multipurpose 

cargo terminals and big variety of forwarders, 

agencies and other companies related to the 

port services. 

There are plenty of possibilities of innerport 

logistic and distribution operations done 

by companies on a basis of market requirements, 

in different cargo groups, focused on 

technological innovations. 

The Port of Gdynia Authority prepared it’s 

Development Strategy towards 2015 focused 

on the further infrastructure improvements 

to rise up port’s capacity and finalize the creation 

of favourable investment conditions for 

port operators and other stakeholders. 

By emerging the Logistic Centre in about 

40 ha plot of land, Gdynia will create more 

favourable environment for value added 

services demanded by cargoes handled at 

Port of Gdynia is awaiting investors in the new Logistic Centre 

the port’s container terminals – Baltic Container 

Terminal , the subsidiary of International 

Container Terminal Services and the 

newly constructed Gdynia Container Terminal 

– the project of Hutchison Port Holding 

Group. Both terminals increase their potential 

and have great future plans. 

Both Gdynia Municipality and Port Authority 

are satisfied from their co-operation 

in order to improve the local road system. 

Within a coming year container terminals 

will be connected directly to the national 

road network by a new construction of the 

missing part of Kwiatkowski Road, named 

after the famous Polish Minister from 1920’s 

who dedicated his life to develop The Port 

of Gdynia. Actual road improvement is possible 

thanks to the support from the European 

Union funds in accordance with The 

National Development Plan. 

The Port of Gdynia Authority always 

declares flexible policy towards the investors. 

Planned Logistic Centre is to be developed 

in phases, depending on the required 


Photo: Port of Gdynia 

demand for storage and warehouse spaces. 

Closed-warehousing facilities are a planned 

for approximately 17.5 ha. The Port of Gdynia 

Authority has already started construction 

of a new office building located within 

the Centre development area in April 2007 

in order to meet the demand posed by container 

operators and agents, also available 

for new logistic companies. 

Simultaneously, the Port Authorities want 

to start construction of a ca. 10,000 sqm warehouse 

in one year’s time. 

There are also several other investment 

projects, e.g. a new ferry terminal, 

modernisation of the Port Channel, development 

of the ro-ro terminal improving 

the Port of Gdynia’s infrastructure and 

market position. Poland’s EU membership 

and growing economy plus the strong and 

stable position of The Port of Gdynia create 

good opportunities for both existing partners 

and new investors. 

JK 



Meeting the growing trade to the UK 

Photo: Port Szczecin-Świnoujście 

The Ports in Szczecin and Świnoujście 

belong to the most important transport 

junctions in the area of the Southern 

Baltic Sea. The Port Authority is looking 

for investors due to the construction of the Ostrów 

Grabowski container terminal and the Westpomeranian 

Logistics Centre. These ventures should 

contribute to starting a container line with the UK. 

The Ports in Szczecin and Świnoujście are located 

in western Poland and they form one of the 

greatest port complexes on the Baltic Sea. Their 

edge is their strategic location – on the shortest 

way from Scandinavia to Central and Southern 

Europe and via the Baltic Sea from Russia and 

Finland to Germany. Moreover, Szczecin and 

Świnoujście are the closest ports and natural 

partners for Brandenburg and Berlin, as well 

as for Silesia, the largest Polish industrial area, 

and for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is 

worth mentioning that the ports in Szczecin and 

Świnoujście, as the only Baltic ports (apart from 

Lübeck), have inland connections with the European 

system of inland water-ways. 

In 2006, the total turnover in both ports 

amounted to more than 19.2 million tons. General 

cargo is the key, from a strategic point of 

view, of the ports’ development and their significance, 

with a total turnover of 7.5 million tons. 

Container handling has been on the rise for several 

years, too. Last year the container handling 

amounted to 42 thou. TEU, i.e., 30 percent more 

than in 2005. Almost all of the container handling 

was feeder traffic to the hub ports in Hamburg 

and Bremerhaven, served by the terminals 

in Szczecin and Świnoujście. Both ports provide 

regular line connections to West Africa, Norway, 

Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK and Ireland. 

In order to meet the ever growing demands 

of the market, the Szczecin and Świnoujście Sea- 


ports Authority adopted a development strategy 

whose primary element is the execution of adjacent 

investments: the development of infrastructure 

for the Ostrów Grabowski container 

terminal and infrastructure for the Westpomeranian 

Logistics Centre. Both investments are being 

implemented and will be completed in the 

middle of this year. The Port Authority is looking 

for investors interested in the construction of a 

superstructure and launching businesses in this 

area. The Westpomeranian Logistics Centre will 

operate based on incoming goods in containers 

and ro-ro traffic in the Baltic area. The Port 

Authority believes that the Centre will become 

a convenient location, not only for Polish customers, 

but also for customers from Berlin and 

Brandenburg. The Ostrów Grabowski container 

terminal will have a minimum handling capacity 

of 80,000 TEU per year. The new terminal will 

improve and increase the container handling capacity 

in Szczecin significantly. 

The Ports in Szczecin and Świnoujście, as the 

farthest western Polish ports, play an important 

role in shipping connections to the UK, regularly 

serving the following ports: Flixborough, 

Howdendyke, Boston, Seaham, Goole, London, 

Belfast and Great Yarmouth. Two operators 

dominate: Fast Lines and Rentrans Cargo. From 

a statistical point of view, in 2006 both ports handled 

almost 900 thou. tons of cargo in relations 

with the UK (major cargoes being: general cargo 

– 421 thou. tons, including 290 thou. tons of steel 

products, coal – 323 thou. tons and grain – 66 

thou. tons). Unfortunately, export dominates in 

these relations (816 thou. tons). It is worth mentioning 

that in the direct hinterland of the ports in 

Szczecin and Świnoujście, there are several major 

producers that export their commodities to the 

British market, e.g., Swedwood, an IKEA supplier 

in Goleniów, Zbąszynek and Zbąszyn, Toyota’s 

factories in Wałbrzych and Jelcz, the cable factory 

Telefonica Kable in Szczecin, paper mills in 

Schwedt – Leipa and UPM Kymmene, Kostrzyn 

– Arctic Paper and the factories of Whirlpool, 

Amica, LG Electronics and LG Philips. Unfortunately, 

only a part of these cargoes are suitable 

for conventional transport offered by the Port 

in Szczecin, therefore, many are transported by 

road. In order to change this situation, measures 

have been taken to start a container connection 

from the ports in Szczecin and Świnoujście to the 

UK. The first service of Samskip already started 

from Świnoujście this month. 

The Port in Świnoujście can accept vessels 

with a draught of 13.2m. One of the main 

elements of the port is the largest Polish 

terminal for dry bulk cargo, where the 

main cargoes are Polish coal exported and 

almost all iron ore imported to Poland. The 

second major part of the port is the biggest 

Polish ferry terminal, with five berths for 

passenger-car and car-railway ferries with 

a draught of up to 7.5m and a maximum 

length of 190m. Ferries to Ystad and Trelleborg 

run six times a day and to Copenhagen 

once a day. A duty free zone in the port 

specializes in the handling of refrigerated 

cargoes, mostly fish, and is equipped with 

large and modern cold stores. 

The Port in Szczecin is a universal port 

that has been providing handling services 

both for Polish and German territories for 

ages. The general cargo area specializes 

in container handling, ro-ro, paper, woodpulp, 

steel products, granite blocks as well 

as project cargoes. The second area of the 

port offers handling of all bulk cargoes, in 

particular coal, coke, iron ore, fertilizers and 

liquid cargoes, including the ones that require 

special storing and handling conditions, 

such as tar and pitch. The duty free 

zone plays an important role, as the main 

distribution centre of granite blocks, cocoa 

beans and aluminium, i.e., cargoes imported 

from outside of the EU. 

Comprehensive services in the UK traffic are 

provided by the Belgian FAST Group. It offers 

sea transport with its own fleet of eight 

vessels with a tonnage from 1,900 DWT to 

3,100 DWT, logistics services, both in Poland 

and the UK, as well as handling and storage 

at its own terminal in the port in Szczecin. 

Fast Terminals provide 40,000 m 2 stacking 

yards and a modern insulated warehouse 

with an area of 10,000 m 2 . Last year the 

terminal handled 213.4 thou. tons, including 

90% cargoes to the UK and Ireland. Responding 

flexibly to market demands, Fast 

Lines calls three times a month at Flixborough, 

twice a month at Howdendyke and 

Drogheda and monthly at Boston, Goole, 

London, Seaham and Belfast. Main cargoes 

include steel products from Czech, Slovak 

and Polish steelworks, as well as wood, aluminium 

scrap and chemicals. On the way 

back, FAST ships carry steel and bulk cargoes, 

however, most of them are unloaded 

in German and Danish ports.

All kinds of containers 

A talk with Jacek Wiśniewski, board member and exploitation department director at Euroafrica 

A partnership at sea between Poland and 

Great Britain started already at the beginning 

of the previous century. What was the 

first phase of this cooperation? 

The tradition of regular sea connections between 

Poland and Britain dates back to the year 

1919 when a service line between London and 

Poland was inaugurated. In 1930, the port of 

Gdynia was incorporated into this service and a 

Polish-British agreement on a joint service line 

between the cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk and 

the cities of London and Hull was signed. The 

line was reactivated shortly after the war and in 

1951 it became part of the structures of the newly 

formed company, PLO (Polskie Linie Oceaniczne), 

thereby continuing the cooperation with 

the British ship owner – United Baltic Corporation 

(UBC). The beginning of the seventies was 

marked by a rapid development in container 

technologies and shortly afterwards, the development 

of ro-ro technology. Between 1979 and 

1980, PLO and UBC launched two modern roro 

vessels into their service line: Baltic Eagle and 

Inowrocław, both of which sailed from Gdynia 

to the ports of Purfleet and Middlesbrough carrying 

containers, general cargo and ro-ro cargo. 

The new shipping line, which at the beginning 

of 1980 was serviced exclusively by Inowrocław, 

was named Pol-Anglia. As soon as Euroafrica 

was established, Pol-Anglia became part of its 

shipping structures while the new shipowner 

continued the traditions of the Szczecin-based 

branch of PLO. In the beginning of 1998, the 

ro-ro technology was replaced by the lo-lo technology 

and full containerization on Euroafrica’s 

shipping activities between Poland and UK. 

Euroafrica came to existence in 1991. The 

firm has successfully continued the traditions 

of its predecessors on the English line. 

What do you offer your business partners 

– the forwarding and trading companies? 

The service currently connects the port of Gdynia 

and the English ports of Felixstowe and 

Hull. We offer port to port shipments as well as 

on a door-to-door basis. We also offer shipping 

services to Ireland using a feeder connection 

via Felixstowe. One of the line’s major assets is 

the possibility of offering its clients a full transport 

service from the place where the cargo was 

originally loaded to its final destination. The 

line guarantees an on-time delivery. Such stability 

and regularity makes it easier for our clients 

to plan and develop their logistics processes. In 

some cases, the containers are utilized as short 

term warehouses. They can be stored in terminals 

before the actual delivery waiting for oncar- 

Photo: Euroafrica 

riage to the client’s warehouse. Lorry transport 

cannot offer such possibilities. We practically 

have all kinds of containers in our fleet, including 

the 45’ hcpw type. This unit offers a capacity 

of 90 cbm and is comparable with the standard 

13,6 m road trailer. Apart from serving the 

bilateral trade exchange between Poland and 

England, Euroafrica also offers feedering services 

to deep-sea ship owners. 

In recent years, the profile of the trade exchange 

between Poland and Great Britain 

has changed. In what way? 

After 1989, when Poland was making the transition 

to a free market economy, the former 

state-owned foreign trade companies began to 

lose their importance. The initiative was taken 

over by private exporters and importers. The 

changes in the Polish and British economies 

also influenced the direction in which the cargo 

was shipped. Great Britain was an important 

exporter of consumption goods such as electronical 

goods, cosmetics and, in the broad 

sense of the word, chemical industry products. 

In the course of the years, it gradually began to 

cut back its own industry heading towards an 

economy based on the service sector. At the 

same time, production plants that manufactured 

the goods hitherto imported from Great 

Britain (for example from Cadbury) began to be 

established in Poland. As a result of this, Great 

Britain is now one of the most valuable importers 

of Poland’s export products (paper, furniture 

and wooden articles, tyres, glass, plastic, 

electronical and chemical products, household 

goods). On the other hand, since Poland’s imports 

of British products are so low now (consumption 

goods, chemical products, machinery 

and second-hand cars), it causes a lack of 

balance in the trade exchange between the two 

countries resulting in many shipping companies 

being forced to run “empty” return sailings. The 


accession of Poland to the European Union in 

2004, had to a great degree imparted dynamism 

to shipping services between the two countries. 

Moreover, the market was opened to competitors. 

Many foreign ship owners viewed it as a 

chance for themselves and launched their own 

liner services thereby entering into direct competition 

with Euroafrica. A more easy transfer 

of people and goods across the overland borders 

also caused the road transport to become 

an increasingly important competitor to shortsea 

container services. 

When talking about competition, why 

– according to you – does it pay to choose 

sea transport rather than the overland 

lorry transport? 

An increasing number of companies place 

great importance on reducing their negative 

influence on the environment. Maritime 

transport ideally fits this scenario. It surely 

is much less environmentally-hostile, thanks 

to a reduced emission of toxic chemical substances. 

In many cases, maritime transport 

turns out to be much more economical and 

offers a cost-effective transport option – one 

of the key factors which determines the 

choice of a given logistics solution. It is also 

worth pointing out that by choosing maritime 

transport, we allow the already overloaded 

system of the European roads and 

motorways to “breathe more easily”. 

Joanna Kitowska 

Euroafrica was established on September 1 st , 

1991. Its roots date back to the year 1951 when 

POL (Polskie Ocean Lines) was set up in Gdynia. 

One of the company’s branches was located in 

Szczecin. It was on the basis of this branch company 

that Euroafrica Shipping Lines was founded 

after it went its separate ways with POL. The 

company’s main activity is shipping cargo by 

sea. The Polish ports are the base ports for all 

the company’s shipping services. Currently, the 

company runs regular lines from the Baltic and 

West-European ports to Great Britain, Sweden 

and Western Africa. Euroafrica Shipping Lines 

operate from eleven to thirteen vessels. The 

structure of the company allows it to serve general 

cargo of various kinds: conventional cargo, 

containers, lorries and rail wagons. The company 

also offers passenger transport on its trade vessels. 

It also conducts commercial activities on 

other markets than the shipping market itself. 

Among others – it offers agency, forwarding and 

customs services and is also engaged in investments 

in the building industry, and running of 

hotels and restaurants and real estate. 


The biggest on the Baltic Sea 

The Baltic Sea does not have its own book of records but, if it did, most probably some data would 

have to be changed in it on account of the VLCC Universal Queen calling at Gdańsk on March 

28 th of this year. The ship, with a deadweight of 309,775 tonnes, took 190,037 tonnes of oil from 

the Liquid Fuel Terminal of the Northern Port in Gdańsk. This is surely the biggest cargo ever 

shipped from the Polish ports and, in all likelihood, the biggest ever transported on the Baltic Sea 

(naturally excluding the ports in the Baltic Straits). The previous record was held by VLCC Famenne 

which took 175,000 tonnes of oil from Gdańsk in 2003. Universal Queen is the biggest vessel to be 

serviced in the ports beyond the Baltic Straits which in fact passed unnoticed in Gdańsk! 

The former record holder, VLCC Front Chief, with a deadweight of 311,224 tonnes, exceeded the 

Universal Queen’s deadweight by two thousand tonnes. The latter vessel’s obvious priority is related to her 

greater gross tonnage (163,465 tonnes) compared to that of the Front Chief (157,863 tonnes). 

The Universal Queen’s hull is 29.6 meters high and her draught is 20.5 meters while that of the 

Front Chief is 31 meters and 22.7 meters, respectively. The former ship’s breadth (58 meters) is exceeded 

by two meters by that of the record holder (60 meters). Moreover, Universal Queen’s length 

is 333,1 meters. The VCCL tankers sporadically call at other Baltic ports including Ventspils and 

Tallinn, but no vessel with a 160,000-tonne deadweight has ever sailed our sea before. 

Cruise Baltic captures 

North America 

The Cruise Baltic Project markets itself as a unique brand to the North American market 

with a road-show. BCP focuses on the compact size of the region, the destinations’ cooperation 

and the cultural and historic experiences offered by the region. 

The Port of Helsingborg’s manager of information and sales promotion, Andreas 

Eriksson, has recently returned from a road-show – in cooperation with Cruise Europe – which 

marketed the Baltic region and its 19 destinations, targeting the twelve most important North 

American-based cruise ship companies. The road-show focussed on the sheer number of experiences 

one can find in this relatively small geographical region, and how much the Baltic 

region has to offer in terms of its culture and history. 

“This is the first time we have pitched the Cruise Baltic Project to a market which ought to 

consider us more seriously when they plan cruises. We were, without exception, enthusiastically 

received by the various cruise lines,” says Mr. Eriksson. “The subjects covered included 

the future deployment of their vessels; port development; access to various ports; itineraries; 

the cost of fuel; and in a few cases certain operational issues related to specific ports.” 

Photo by G. Mierkiewicz / ZMPG SA 

Maritime 

What’s new? 

The Russian National Container Company 

(NCC) started the construction of a new 

container terminal in the port of Ust-Luga 

in April. The terminal will initially have a capacity 

of 3 million TEUs per year and later it 

will be increased to 6 million TEUs per year. 

According to SeaNews.ru, 440 m of quays 

will be built and completed by December 

this year. The investment will be in excess of 

USD 800 million. 

Upon the request of the Global Institute of 

Logistics, Germanischer Lloyd will develop a 

Container Terminal Quality Indicator (CTQI) 

standard. This benchmarking system will 

be based on the results of different workshops 

with branch experts and will measure 

the port performances within the supply 

chain process. The result will offer the industry 

new dimensions. They will be able to 

choose terminals that best suit their needs 

and supply chain strategy. “We are planning 

to launch the new standard at the end 

of 2007”, said Bernhard Ständer, Managing 

Director of Germanischer Lloyd. “With our 

experience in developing and implementing 

the Cool Chain Quality Index (CCQI), we 

have good preconditions that we can incorporate 

in the current CTQI-process.” 

Cruise ships and ferries operating in the 

Baltic Sea carry up to 80 million passengers 

annually. According to global environmental 

conservation organization WWF, the wastewater 

released from vessels into the Baltic 

each year contains up to 460 tons of nitrogen 

and 150 tons of phosphorus, contributing 

to toxic algae bloom and water quality 

degradation. That is why WWF is calling on 

shipping companies operating there to voluntarily 

commit to a ban on all dumping of 

polluted wastewater into the sea. In June, 

2007, WWF will publish a list of the companies 

that have agreed to the ban. 

Russian ports recorded the most significant 

changes in container transport according 

to the “Baltic Container Outlook 

2007” report prepared by Actia Consulting. 

During the last six years, the share of containerized 

transport in the whole transport 

industry in that country has grown from 

8.4 to 24.7%. All the Baltic ports’ turnover 

in 2006 reached 6.4m TEU which is 8.7% 

of the European freightage and 1.4% 

of the global container freightage. The 

Port of St. Petersburg is the leader with 

1,449,958 TEU last year. 


What’s new? 


Port Gdański Eksploatacja (PGE) has 

bought a new container gantry crane. The 

crane will be servicing the containers at 

the Gdańsk Container Terminal (PGE is the 

main operator at GCT). The crane was made 

by Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. 

Ltd – the world’s biggest manufacturer of 

port cargo handling machinery, especially 

cranes. The crane is 56 metres in height. Its 

lifting capacity on hook is 60 tons, while 

the water jib reach of the crane amounts to 

38 metres, the quayside jib reach is 28 metres. 

The crane was transported from Shanghai 

to Europe onboard the ship Zhen Hua 20 

with five other cranes for the Alter Werde 

terminal in Hamburg. 

Stena Line launches its third ferry line 

between Gdynia and Karlskrona. The new 

vessel, Finnarrow, started operations at 

the beginning of May and will increase the 

owner’s carrying capacity on this line by 

60%. The carriage on the line grew rapidly 

in 2006, by 14% in the passenger segment, 

3% in personal cars and 19% in freight. 

Q1 2007 saw an extraordinary boom, with 

15% more passengers, 29% more personal 

cars and 11% more freight than in the same 

period of last year. “We can see a stable 

economic growth in Poland and other CEE 

countries, therefore, connections between 

Poland and Sweden will become more and 

more important and the number of freight 

and private travels will rise,” says Hans 

Hansen, acting Director of the Gdynia-Karlskrona 

line. The new vessel on the line will 

sail under the Swedish flag. The Finnarrow 

ferry has been chartered from Finnlines for 

three years. The acting Executive Director 

of the Stena Line Concern, Gunnar Blomdahl, 

predicts that in the next three years, 

the company will keep increasing its carrying 

capacities on the Gdynia-Karlskrona 

connection by introducing new ferries. 

President Vladimir Putin asked the Russian 

government to hasten with the preparation 

of a decree to develop the railway 

infrastructure of the North-Western region. 

Putin noted that the railway infrastructure 

development will help to increase the 

capacity of the ports in this region. At the 

same time, Russian Railways changed their 

schedule of cargo supplying and oil supplying, 

in particular, to the states of the Baltic 

region. The decision was said to be taken 

due to the reconstruction of a section of the 

Oktyaborskaya railway and has nothing to 

do with the developments in Estonia at the 

beginning of May.

Barge Giant 

PhotoŁ Odratrans 

At the end of April, Odratrans SA from Wrocław bought 72% of the stocks in Deutsche 

Binnenrederei AG from Berlin. As a result of the transaction, a shipping group was 

established that is the biggest barge shipper in Europe. The new Group comprises as 

many as 900 different vessels. It is the largest fleet under one flag in Europe. 

The core business of the companies is focused between the Rhine and the Odra and it involves 

shipments for sea ports in Hamburg, Bremen and Szczecin. In 2006 Odratrans and Deutsche Binnenrederei 

had a joint turnover of EUR 64m (Odratrans – EUR 31.5m, DBR – 32.5m). The total carriage 

of both owners amounted to more than 20m tonnes. The new Group employs about 200 people and 

its fleet on the European inland shipping lanes will comprise 260 motor cargo boats and pusher-tugs 

and 550 barges without a drive. The total tonnage will amount to 450 thou. tonnes. 

“I think the fleet will continue under both flags: Polish and German,” says Andrzej Klimek, President 

of Odratrans. The management of the new Group is a Polish-German duo, consisting of Robert Baack, at 

present the head of the Board at DBR, and Jacek Zawodny from the management of Odratrans. International 

carriage will be coordinated from Berlin, while Wrocław will focus on the Polish market. 

What’s new? 

Aarhus Municipality has decided to 

build a 2 km-long tunnel under the 

Marselis Boulevard connecting Aarhus 

Harbour with the European motorway 

system. The construction is part of a Master 

Plan which involves the development 

of the harbour together with an internal 

restructuring. The Master Plan includes 

the establishment of an entirely new 

and widened commercial harbour with 

international hub handling facilities, a 

redoubled freight trade of twenty million 

tons and a container capacity of more 

than one million TEUs. The project will be 

financed together with the Aarhus Municipality 

and the Danish Government. 

The initiatives up to now will be followed 

by an official application from the Danish 

Government in the hope that the EU, too, 

will support the project. 

Aker Yards delivered the ferry Star 

to Tallink which has begun sailing between 

Helsinki and Tallinn. The vessel, 

which cost EUR 110 million, can 

carry 1,900 passengers and has a capacity 

of more than 2,000 lane metres 

of cargo. With a speed of 27 knots, the 

ferry is able to complete the voyage 

in two hours. 


What’s new? 

Aviation 

According to the International Air Transport 

Association (IATA), Russia still remains 

the most dangerous place to fly despite the 

global improvements which made 2006 Russia’s 

safest year on record. Russia and other 

members of the Commonwealth of Independent 

States (CIS) had an accident rate 13 times 

higher than the global average, IATA said. The 

industry on average had 0.65 serious accidents 

per million flights for Western-built jets or one 

accident for every 1.5 million flights. In the CIS, 

the rate was 8.6 accidents per million flights, or 

twice the rate of Africa, where the level fell to 

4.31 from 9.2. In 2006 major global accidents 

fell to 77 from 111 in the previous year. 

By the end of this year, the freight center at 

SAS Braathens, Norway’s largest scheduled 

Munich Airport will look as it appears in 

airline, will become SAS Norge on June 1. The 

this visualization. The new freight forward- 

name change, which was proposed by SAS ers building is shown in the foreground with the 

Braathens’ CEO Ola Strand, was approved by adjoining car park situated right next to the exist- 

the company’s general assembly this afternoon. ing freight facilities which are visible in the back- 

The new formal name is SAS Scandinavian Airground. With this expansion project, FMG (the 

lines Norge, abbreviated to SAS Norge. It will fit Munich Airport operating company) is respond- 

in naturally with the other carriers in the SAS ing to the ongoing boom in its airfreight sector. The 

Group: SAS Sverige (Sweden), SAS Danmark building will be 230 meters long, 65 meters deep 

AD (Denmark) 320trucks and SAS 205x135 International. 

(PL) 07-05-14 11.33 and Sida 12 meters 1 high. In its initial phase it will already 

have 15,000 square meters of floor space and 

Gdynia–Karlskrona 

EXTRA 

CAPACITY 

Now you can book more space. And deliver more often. 

We’ve expanded our fleet on the popular Gdynia–Karlskrona route. The “Finnarrow” is a new 

reinforcement that gives an extra daily departure with capacity for 120 trucks – increasing the 

overall route capacity by 60%. 

And with another departure time, you’ll be able to fit more deliveries into your schedule. 

For more information give us a call or drop us a line at freight.info@stenaline.com www.stenalinefreight.com Tel +48 (0)58 660 92 97 Fax: +48 (0)58 621 33 08 


Munich Airport 

New logistics center taking shape 

Photo: Munich Airport 

the facilities for 50 trucks to dock simultaneously. 

Four logistics partners will use the new building as 

a handling area for their freight activities. 

“Compared with our first year of operation, 

airfreight tonnage has increased in the 

space of 15 years by a whopping 314 percent,” 

said FMG Executive Vice President Walter Vill 

at the official groundbreaking ceremony for the 

expansion of the Munich Airfreight Center. 

Since opening in 1992, the annual freight 

volume handled at Munich Airport has quadrupled 

from barely 100,000 to more than 

400,000 metric tons. This means that the airport 

handles more than 1,000 tons of freight per day. 

In each of the past three years, the freight sector 

has posted double-digit growth rates. The 

sector has also started 2007 with an excellent 

performance in every category. The total 

tonnage in the first quarter was up 13 percent 

year-on-year. Contributing to this trend, in addition 

to co-loaded freight carried on passenger 

flights, is the increasing traffic with freight-only 

aircraft such as the Cathay Pacific, British Airways 

and DHL planes that regularly transport 

cargo to and from Munich Airport.

2007 spring and summer transport 

events calendar 

MAY 

13-15 May in Sofia, Bulgaria 

Intra-Europe: Regional Route Development Forum • www.routesregionalevents.com 

14-18 May in London, United Kingdom 

Basic Dry Dock Training Course • www.rina.org.uk 


Gas Ship Technology 2007 • www.lloydslistevents.com 


LNG Shipping • www.lloydslistevents.com 

15-18 May in Singapore 

IMDEX ASIA 2007 • www.imdexasia.com 

17 May in Szczecin, Poland* 

5 th Polish Scientific Conference, Polish Linear and Ferry Shipping: 

”Port and Shipping Companies on the European Transport-Logistics 

Market” • www.zegluga.szczecin.pl 


Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Systems 2007 

• www.idga.org 


LNG Finance 2007 Summit • www.iqpc.com 


Production Forecasting for Oil and Gas 2007 • www.iqpc.com 

28-30 May in Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

Airport Expo Dubai • www.theairportshow.com 

30 May in London, United Kingdom* 

Maritime transport links between Poland and the United 

Kingdom: port, shipping, logistics • www.baltic-press.com 


Design & Construction of Vessels Operating in Low Temperature 

Environments • www.rina.org.uk 

JUNE 

5-8 June in Barcelona, Spain 

SIL 2007 • www.silbcn.com 

6-8 June in Odessa, the Ukraine 

InterTransPort 2007 • www.expo-odessa.com 

11-13 June in Aachen, Germany 

Aachen Aviation Convention • www.aachen-aviation-convention.com 

11-14 June in Poznań, Poland 

LTS Transporta 2007 • www.transporta.mtp.pl 

12-13 June in Aberdeen, United Kingdom 

Asset Integrity Management Summit • www.iqpc.com 

12-15 June in Munich, Germany* 

Transport Logistic • www.transportlogistic.de 

Visit our stand no. 130 (hall B4) 

12-15 June in Oslo, Norway 

Nor Shipping 2007 • www.messe.no 

12-14 June in Lille, France 

Calendar 

Sifer 2007 – 5 th International Railway Exhibition 

• www.sifer2007.com 

13 June in Lillestrøm, Norway 

1st International Ship Management Conference, Nor-Shipping 2007 

• www.shipmanagementinternational.com 

13-14 June in Greenwich (London), United Kingdom 

Ports & Ferries: Partners in 21st Century European Trade 

• www.shipshapeinternational.com 

14-15 June in Warsaw, Poland 

4 th IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference • www.gfptt.org 

18-20 June in Moscow, Russia 

Rail-Tech Russia 2007 • www.europoint-bv.com 

18-21 June in Aberdeen, Scotland 

Oceans ‘07 • www.oceans2007europe.org 

20-21 June in Bath, United Kingdom 

Warship 2007: The Affordable Warship • www.rina.org.uk 

26-29 June in St. Petersburg, Russia 

4 th International Conference – Navy and Shipbuilding 

• www.navalshow.ru 

27 June-1 July in St. Petersburg, Russia 

International Maritime Defence Show IMDS-2007 

• www.navalshow.ru 

SEPTEMBER 

4-6 September in Gdańsk, Poland* 

Baltexpo 2007 • www.baltexpo.com.pl 

18-20 September in Portsmouth, United Kingdom 

13 th International Conference on Computer Applications in Shipbuilding 

• www.rina.org.uk 

18-20 September in Belfast, Northern Ireland 

7 th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration and Operations Conference 

• www.aiaa.org 

19-20 September in Warsaw, Poland* 

Airports 2007 • www.actiaconferences.com 

19-21 September in Moscow, Russia 

Jet Expo 2007: Russian International Business Aviation Conference 

• www.jetexpo.ru 

23-25 September in Stockholm, Sweden 

Routes: 13 th World Route Development Forum 

• www.routesonline.com 

23-26 September in Limassol, Cyprus 

Maritime Cyprus 2007 Conference • www.shipping.gov.cy 

24-27 September in St. Petersburg, Russia 

Neva 2007: 9 th International Shipping, Shipbuilding Ports and Offshore 

Energy Exhibition • www.setcorp.ru 

25-27 September in Hamburg, Germany 

Seatrade Europe: Cruise, Ferry and River Cruise Convention 

www.seatrade-europe.com 

*The Baltic Transport Journal is a media sponsor for this event. 

Please call our advertising department at (+48) 58 627 2394 or 

(+48) 58 627 2395 for futher details. 


Economy 

Economic development trends in the 

The tendency of the world economy remains strong. In 2006 

the worldwide GDP is expected to have increased by a full 5.3 

percent, an extremely high growth rate by historical standards. 

This year and next year, growth will slightly slow down but exceed 

its trend rate even then. Thus, the global economy will 

continue to strengthen. The fastest-growing economies will still 

The Swedish economy grew by a full 4.4 percent in 

2006. It is heavily dependent on trade with other countries. 

In the period ahead, the slackening global expansion 

will limit the increase in Swedish exports. But, partly because of 

a stronger tendency in new orders at the outset of 2007, exports will 

be up by just over 7 percent and account for approximately half of 

the GDP growth for the year. Income-tax cuts effective as of January 

1 of this year, continued a rapid growth in employment and larger 

wage increases will generate an extremely high increase of 5.3 percent 

in real disposable household income this year. The unemployment 

rate, which was 5.4 percent in 2006, will fall to 4.3 percent in 

2008. Employers will experience a gradual increasing difficulty in 

finding labour with the skills in demand. The lack of skilled personnel 

is most noticeable in the construction sector and certain service 

industries. In February inflation was 1.3 percent. The low inflation 

in 2007 is explainable primarily by the slack unit labour costs in the 

business sector in recent years. Also, inflation will be limited this year 

by decreasing energy prices. Consequently, inflation will only be 

0.9 percent in 2007. For the business sector as a whole, hourly earnings 

are expected to rise by 4.1 percent in 2007 and 4.5 percent in 2008. 

The Riksbank’s forecast is that the repo rate will have been raised to 

3.50 percent after the summer of 2007. All factors considered, the 

GDP will maintain at a strong rate of increase – with growth reaching 

3.9 percent this year and easing off to 3.4 percent in 2008. 

The Estonian economy grew by 10.9 percent in the last quarter of 

2006, bringing the annual growth to a total of 11.4 percent. The rate 

of economic growth was one of the most rapid in the European Union, 

second only to Latvia’s 11.9 percent. The average of all of the member states for 

the year was 2.9 percent. Much of the reason for this growth was internal demand, 

with dramatic increases in individual consumption and investment. The Ministry of 

Finance expects to see a reduction in the rate of economic growth in 2007. According 

to the forecast, in 2007 and 2008 the Estonian economy will grow by 9.2% and 

8.3%, respectively. The economic growth is based on the domestic demand and exports, 

although their growth rates will decelerate. In 2007 and further on, employment 

is expected to stay at the high level that was achieved in 2006. There will be 

even some additional employment growth – 1.4% in 2007 and 0.8% in 2008. In the 

same time the unemployment rate will decrease continuously – to 4.8% in 2007 and 

4.4% in medium terms. The investment activity will stay high in the forthcoming 

years. Investment growth is strong among companies, households and the government 

sector. In 2007 – 2008, the deceleration in the growth of exports of goods and 

services is expected due to a weakening of external competitiveness and a decelerating 

growth in external demand. The growth of imports of goods and services 

is also expected to decelerate in forthcoming years due to slower growth rates of 

exports and domestic demand. Inflation will accelerate to 4.9% in 2007 and 5.2% in 

2008. The high inflation in 2007 is caused by the high growth in wages which is a result 

of the rapid economic growth and unemployment rate decrease, but also by an 

increase in administrative prices that are linked with housing. The general government 

budget surplus in 2007 is expected to be 1.9% of GDP. The tax burden in 2007 

is expected to be 31.1% of GDP and will decrease by 1.1 percentage points to 30% 

of GDP, by 2011. The general government debt burden continues to decline and will 

decrease from 2.7% of GDP in 2007, to 1.8% of GDP, by the end of 2011. 


be those outside the OECD, such as China, India and Russia. In the 

euro zone, the 2006 GDP rose by 2.8 percent, its highest growth 

rate since 2000. In response, the European Central Bank has gradually 

been raising interest rates over the past year, and further rate 

hikes are expected. The fiscal policy will be tightened, particularly 

in Germany and Italy. 

The volume of total output grew by 1.7 percent 

in Finland in February 2007 from February 

of the previous year. Among the six main 

industries, decline in output was only recorded in manufacturing. 

Industrial output increased by 1.3 percent from February 

2006. In the whole metal industry, the volume of output 

fell by 2 percent and production in its sub-industry of manufacture 

of electronic and electrical products declined by 

10 percent. In the wood and paper industry, output declined 

by one percent from February 2006. Output volumes in other 

manufacturing went down by 2 percent while energy supply 

grew by 6 percent. Sales volumes of trade went up by 6 percent. 

Construction output grew by 7 percent. Output in other 

service industries increased by 2 percent and transportation 

by 3 percent. Primary production improved by one percent 

from February 2006. The number of employed persons in 

February was higher than one year previously. The employment 

rate stood at 68.1 percent, while it was 67.5 percent in 

February 2006. The rate of unemployment was 7.5 percent, 

while it was 8,4 percent one year before. The year-on-year 

change in consumer prices, i.e., inflation, calculated by Statistics 

Finland, was 2.6 percent in March. In February it was 

2.2 percent. Inflation was speeded up above all by increases 

in the prices of liquid fuels and phone call charges. 

Russia’s GDP grew by 7.9 percent 

in the first quarter of 2007 compared 

with the same period of 

last year. In the first three months of 2006, GDP 

grew by 5 percent. The GDP growth forecast 

for 2007 had been raised from 6.2 to 6.5 percent. 

Inflation dropped to 3.4 percent. Industrial 

production grew 8.4 percent in the first 

quarter of 2007, up from a 3 percent growth 

in the same period of last year. Manufacturing 

growth stood at 8.4 percent from January 

to March 2007. The food industry gained 

13.7 percent, a marked increased from 3 percent 

in the first quarter of 2006. Textile production 

climbed 11 percent. Russia’s economic 

growth accelerated despite a reverse trend in 

oil prices. The rubble’s effective real exchange 

rate appreciated 2.6 percent in the first quarter 

of this year. Net capital inflow totalled $18.3 

billion, 2.5 times more than in the first three 

months of last year. Real personal incomes increased 

by 13 percent, up from 7 percent in 

the first three months of 2006. The producer 

price index (PPI) was unchanged during March 

(3.1% y/y). Consumer prices (CPI) rose by 7.4% 

y/y in March. Real wages accelerated to 18.9% 

y/y in March, up from 17.5% y/y in February.

Baltic States at the beginning of 2007 

Lithuania’s average annual inflation rate 

(HICP) measured month-on-month in March 

compared with February was 0.6 percent, and 

the 12-month inflation rate was 4.8 percent. Unemployment 

in Lithuania shrank by 0.2 percentage points, month-onmonth, 

to reach 3.7 percent in March. Lithuanian exports 

grew by 8.3 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 

this year, while imports rose by 23.2 percent to 8.7 billion litas. 

The country’s foreign trade deficit surged by 80.2 percent 

year-on-year to 2.6 billion litas. The main export commodities 

included mineral products (13.4 percent of the total), 

machines, mechanical and electrical equipment (12 percent), 

transport vehicles and auxiliary transport equipment 

(10.2 percent) in the reporting period. The country’s biggest 

export partner was Russia, accounting for 13.7 percent of 

two months of exports, followed by Latvia with 12.1 percent, 

Germany with 11.4 percent and Poland with 6.7 percent. The 

import ranking was topped by Russia with 20 percent of the 

total imports, followed by Germany with 14.1 percent, Poland 

with 10.1 percent and Latvia with 5.3 percent. In February 

alone, Lithuania’s exports declined by 5.3 percent from 

January, while imports increased by 3.9 percent month-onmonth. 

Compared with February 2006, exports and imports 

increased by 2.6 percent and 22.7 percent in February this 

year. Statistics Lithuania informs that based on provisional 

data as of 1 January 2007, the bulk of investments fell per 

investor from Poland (22.6 percent of total foreign direct investment), 

Denmark (15.3 percent), Sweden (10.6 percent), 

Germany (9.9 percent), Finland (6.7 percent), Russia (6.3 percent) 

and Estonia (5.9 percent). The first position occupied by 

Poland was determined by investment of the Polish concern 

PKN Orlen S. A. into the public company Mažeikių nafta. 

The Latvian GDP growth in the fourth quarter 

and overall in 2006 (11.7% and 11.9%, respectively) 

was mainly driven by private consumption 

and investment. A rapid growth was observed 

in trade, real estate, business activities and financial intermediation, 

whereas it was much slower in manufacturing. 

Also in January 2007, the increase in retail trade was 32.2%. 

Freight transported by rail recorded a further decline of 

7.7% in February, whereas the year-on-year expansion of 

the total cargo turnover at Latvian ports and volume of oil 

products transported by pipeline was 3.9% and 32.5%, respectively. 

The number of unemployed persons decreased 

slightly in February, whereas the unemployment rate remained 

unchanged (6.5%). The growth of consumer price 

annual inflation in February (to 7.3%, including goods 

6.0% and services 10.9%) was determined by an increase 

in administered prices. In February, the financial deficit of 

the general government’s consolidated budget totalled 

12.8 million lats. At the end of the third week of February, 

the ongoing discussions about the external imbalances 

and the rumours about the probable devaluation of the 

lat caused the selling of lats above regular volumes. The 

euro exchange rate quoted by banks was approaching the 

Bank of Latvia’s upper intervention margin. Compared with 

March of the previous year, consumer prices have increased 

by 8.5% (7.3% for goods and 11.8% for services). 

Economy 

The Danish economy is stronger than ever with a high 

growth, a low inflation (HICP inflation rose to 1.8% in 

January) and a robust current account surplus. Moreover, 

the risk of overheating has diminished; the growth potential 

is extremely modest due to a declining labour force and an unemployment 

rate which cannot go down much further (the jobless rate 

dropped to only 3.9% in December). Therefore, the GDP growth 

may well be around 1.0-1.5% p.a. in 3-5 years. These developments 

will hardly have a significant impact on the financial markets albeit 

shares in companies with a large exposure to the Danish market are 

likely to perform relatively poorly over this horizon. 

Polish industrial production grew by 11.3% y/y in 

March, further confirming that growth remains very 

strong in Poland, and there are very few signs of the 

growth slowing down. On the other hand, producer prices (PPI) grew 

by 3.1% y/y , a bit below the consensus expectation of 3.5% y/y. At 

the end of April, the reference rate of the Polish Central Bank (NBP) 

rose of 25bp to 4.25%. Construction output grew by 39.1% y/y – less 

stellar than in January and February, but nonetheless still very strong. 

Inflationary pressures have been building for quite some time now in 

Poland, though inflation has remained below the NBP’s official target 

of 2.5% – at least until March when it hit exactly 2.5%. Meanwhile, the 

wage growth delivered a strong upside surprise in March, with wages 

growing 9.1% y/y. It will be private consumption rather than capital investment 

that is going to be the main engine of economic growth this 

year. Gross fixed capital investment will undoubtedly increase. There is, 

however, a lot of uncertainty concerning the rate of that increase. Foreign 

trade will not contribute to the GDP growth due to the continuing 

faster growth of imports than exports. 

The German economy has cooled down somewhat 

at the start of the year. The growth forecast for this 

year has to be revised from 1.4% to 1.8%. The backdrop 

is better than the expected starting point for 2007 and the ongoing 

improvement on the labour market. It appears that German 

industry had already started to lose momentum slightly at the end 

of last year. Production in the last three months of 2006 stagnated 

quarter-on-quarter. The number of unemployed fell, bringing the 

jobless rate down from 9.8% to 9.5%.German consumer prices recorded 

a far less drastic rise at the start of the year than expected, 

increasing by only 1.6% year-on-year. It would appear that, so far, 

companies have only been passing on the VAT increase to consumers 

in certain segments. A 1.9% increase is expected in consumer 

prices in 2007. 

Prepared by professor Henryk Ćwikliński 

University of Gdańsk 

Sources: Danske Bank, Dresdner Bank, Estonian Ministry of Finance, 

Latvijas Banka, Statistics Finland, Statistics Sweden, Swiss Baltic Chamber 

of Commerce in Lithuania, WestLB Polska S.A. 


Maritime 

Container conference in Gdańsk 

What drives oceanic carriers to the Baltic Sea? 

The Polish Tricity is becoming a conference centre for maritime 

business on the Baltic Sea. 

In the fall of 2006, a conference devoted 

to ferry navigation and ro-ro cargo took 

place in Gdynia after which, between 

March 22 nd and 23 rd of this year, another 

conference was organized in Gdańsk 

under the banner: “the Baltic container 

transport – on the verge of changes”. 

It is not difficult to guess that the order of the 

day was the perspectives for the Deepwater Container 

Terminal, a structure that is currently being 

built in Gdańsk and is nearing its completion. 

DCT representatives made it no secret that their 

ambition is to take on the role of a hub for oceanic 

carriers – what should trigger off changes in the 

configuration of feeder lines on the Baltic Sea. In 

his presentation, “The system of hub terminals – 

too early, too late or just in time?”, Robin McLeod, 

said that the Deepwater Container Terminal had 

been established “in just the right time”. He maintained 

that since, among others, the Baltic Sea did 

not freeze over and was centrally positioned, the 

port of Gdańsk was the best place where deep- 


sea routes could meet feeder connections. He was 

trying to prove that DCT offers better terms than 

other potential Baltic hubs, such as Helsinki and 

Götenborg. Let it be added that the conference 

participants did not know of the surprise prepared 

for them by MSC. On April 15 th of this year, the 

1,600 TEU panamax MSC Bremen called at Gdynia 

sailing from the Far East. With a capacity of 

5,000 TEU, it currently holds the world record for 

being the largest container ship to be serviced in 

ports inside the Baltic Sea. 

According to unconfirmed information 

available already before the conference, it was 

known that MSC would be one of DCT’s first 

clients but it was thought that they were only 

after the transfer of operator’s feeder services 

from Gdynia to Gdańsk. MSC Bremen’s calling 

at Gdynia might in fact be a sort of test before 

more radical changes are to take place. 

Bjarne Mathiesen, the director of the Port 

of Århus, indirectly argued with the viewpoint 

according to which DCT has fair chances of be- 

coming a hub. He suggested that a hub on the 

Baltic Sea has better chances in the straits, that 

is to say, in such Ports as Århus and Götenborg. 

One of Mathiesen’s arguments was that it is in 

the straits where it would be easier to achieve 

the “critical mass” in container turnover which 

in turn is an indispensable factor in assessing the 

profitability of a possible change. Moreover, he 

also reminded the conference participants of the 

“magic 28-day” time limit that a container ship 

has to meet while making her voyage from Asia 

to Europe, and that any calling on the Baltic Sea 

would only result in the journey being longer. 

The zeal of the “Baltic heads” was dampened 

by Henrik Lorenz of Hamburg who talked a little 

about the history of container ships in his native 

port and presented the plans for the extension of 

the container terminals. The ample presentation, 

consisting of forty-one slides, made by Lorenz 

only proved that Hamburg could meet all the 

market challenges in the past and that it would 

also be able to do it in the future. 

Most probably, at this juncture, the discussion 

could do with a representative of one of 

the big container operators. These kind of com-

panies send their deep-sea vessels to Gdynia 

but they never explain why they do it. Let me 

add here that precisely one month before MSC 

Bremen, another panamax ship of 4,170 TEU, 

Maersk Bremen, moored at Gdynia. Is it possible 

to believe that oceanic carriers are driven 

by other motifs than those strictly related to the 

market? For example, they wish to have a solid 

and already functioning safety-valve in case of 

congestion in the ports on the North Sea? 

As is common during such events, presentations 

of various characters were made. Some of 

them sought to supply information on the novelties 

in the trade and were a bit commercial in character 

though not devoid of educational value. 

For example, Andrew McKaig of Central 

Systems & Automation, presented software for 

container terminal management which uses GPS 

to locate every container in the terminal. Also the 

information presented by Anton Gans on the new 

port in Sillamae could fall into that category. The 

port was built on the bare coast in Estonia not far 

from the border with Russia. The speaker showed 

that such investments as Silport were based on the 

idea of “dehubbing”, that is to say, on the idea of 

anticipated “direct calls” that pass big ports. 

Some of the presentations were marked by 

a highly theoretical character. Among these was 

the presentation made by Colin Chanter, CEO 

of DCT, who spoke on the strategy used by Mac- 

quarie Bank Group in financing port investments. 

The head of the research group Det Norske Veritas 

(DNVR&I), Per Olaf Brett, managed to combine 

theory with practice better than others. As it turns 

out, much to the conference participants’ surprise, 

DNV has conducted not only technical analyses 

but also those concerning the economy. And, as 

it was made clear in the presentation, DNV did a 

better job than any one of the economic institutes 

existing in all the Baltic ports. Brett disclosed that 

DNV conducted a profitability analysis of motorways 

of the sea promoted by the European Union. 

It turned out that the idea was a failure in every 

way; its realization would make transport more 

expensive, traffic on the roads would be increased 

and it would also increase the amount of pollution. 

Brett said that the major principle of the transport 

economy was simple and unchangeable – cargo 

should be delivered by sea as close to the client as 

possible. On this occasion, by the way, it turned 

out that the EU was taking on major initiatives 

without actually conducting feasibility and consequence 

analyses and that it based its decisions on 

unreliable information. 

However, the main theme of the lecture presented 

by the DNV economist was mostly the 

considerations regarding the influence that the 

size of general cargo feeders, ro-ros and MPV-s 

might have on the Baltic transport market. According 

to Brett, no further increase of the size 

Maritime 

of the vessels operated on the Baltic Sea is to be 

expected. A container feeder seems to stabilise 

around 1,200 TEU as a handy vessel – he said. 

The shortening of lay time in ports (by a simultaneous 

usage of the ships’ and shore cargo gear) 

rather than the growth of speed will be the source 

for increasing the efficiency of navigation. 

According to DNV, small ports require bigger 

investments because, thanks to them, multipurpose 

vessels may pass the hubs. Moreover, 

the findings of Brett’s research team also indicate 

that it is more profitable for the Baltic operators 

to invest in multipurpose vessels (and also in roros) 

than in specialized container ships. 

The same speaker blamed the container 

feeders for being an “unbalanced” means of 

transportation on account of major emission 

of gas to the atmosphere. The analyses made 

by DNV also explain such strategic decisions 

as the one made by Finnlines to withdraw 

from the feeder line business, or mergers of 

feeder operators, and a noticeable unwillingness 

in Scandinavia to invest in this area of 

navigation. Per Olaf Brett then confirmed, 

though unwittingly, that the hopes cherished 

in DCT in Gdańsk for oceanic container ships 

have some justification. The conference was 

organized by Actia Forum from Gdynia. 

Marek Błuś 


Maritime 


Too much of a good thing 

The EU has for more than 10 years now advocated and strongly 

motivated the transport industry to prioritise the search for better 

inter modal transport solutions under the umbrella-concept 

of the Motorways of the seas – establishing larger hub ports with 

dedicated, large and fast ro-ro service sailings between the hub 

ports throughout Europe. 

It implies that trucks drive to the hubs 

from a larger hinterland region then to 

be lifted across the closest straights to 

continue their door-to-door delivery 

service on the other side of the sea leg. 

This takes place when seaborne transport 

could have competitively been arranged 

closer to the origin of the transport mission. 

Recent research in Scandinavia and Norway 

(the R&D project EUROFEEDER) indicates 

that the Motorways of the sea concept actually, 

generates more overall road trucking, than 

sailing more ships on longer distances and to 

more and smaller ports, would have done. The 


same study shows that filling ships full, as close 

to the producers’ facilities as possible, and 

sending them to the nearest consumer ports 

actually reduces the overall demand and road 

trucking activity. Who’s right – who’s wrong? 

No one solution fits all. 

Congestions? No surprise 

Now it is time, however, for a critical reflection 

and a necessary revision of the European 

inter modal transport policy. Motorways of the 

seas was perhaps a productive term to capture 

the industries’ and national politicians’ atten- 

tion during the 1990s and at the beginning of 

the current decade. Today, the right answer to 

reduce congestion and improve sustainability 

must be effective transport (doing the right 

things) regardless of mode, geography and inter 

modality requirements. 

If the perspective is to reduce road and 

railway congestions and enhancing the sustainability 

of shipping and transport in general, 

the Motorways of the seas concept is not 

the only solution. Has this mantra directed 

and partly dictated research tasks, mediating 

the means and the industries’ attention for too 

long? It is argued here that in many cases, this 

one-sided emphasis from central EU-offices 

has been counterproductive from an effectiveness 

and sustainability standpoint. Please stop 

pursuing this one dimensional means of motivating 

integrated transport mode preferences. 

It is now a well-known fact that too much 

freight is carried on the roads of the expanded 

Europe. It has been recognised for a long time

for too long? 

that economic growth creates trade, which 

again, expands the transport demand. Increased 

trade has almost continually led to increased 

transport needs – on land and at sea as well as 

in the air. Among economists and other transport 

analysts, it has been accepted that growth 

creates trade by a factor of approximately 

1.5 times. In later years, this regression has become 

as high as 2 times. i.e., for each percentage 

point the GNP (Gross National Product) grows, 

trade now grows by a factor of at least two, measured 

by tonnage. In terms of transport work 

(tons-km) the multiplier is even higher. Therefore, 

it should be no surprise to anyone that congestions 

result in the ports, on the rail tracks and 

on the roads. Has the investments in transport 

infrastructure on land or in the ports followed 

this foreseeable imbalanced situation? No. 

ping segments. How can this transport mode 

then take over more substitute cargo from the 

roads and railways? Certainly by i) increasing 

the load factor of existing ships – the average 

for the European fleet is probably less than 

60 percent on a yearly basis, ii) improving the 

operational efficiency of the existing fleet, iii) 

increasing the efficiency of the existing fleet, and 

iv) building more new and effective tonnage. 

All modes should pay 

for their real costs 

Four ways from the road to the sea 

Effective transport is normally achieved 

when seaborne freight is loaded onboard ships. 

Except for very short distances, it is always the 

best ship transport solution alternative – from a 

freight cost standpoint and from a sustainability 

standpoint. Economies of scale always win. Far 

too much cargo is transported unnecessarily 

fast, thus, favouring the sea transport solution. 

Traditionally, European countries pro- Trucks on land and ships services are not really 

duced most of their own goods; and, freight competitors. In almost all cases, freight carried 

of finished and semi-finished goods were by ships, even by the smaller ones, can easily 

limited to national forwarders and shippers substitute 150 to several thousands of standard 

and consequently short distances. Today, due trucks by capacity. Can anyone foresee seaborne 

to globalisation and extreme competition for cargo disappearing to land-based trucking op- 

competitive advantage like low level factor erators? No. Trucks shall perform transport 

conditions (cost of labour, taxes and tariffs and work within the geographical area where they 

cost of capital), goods are produced overseas are competitive, typically distances less than 

generating extreme increases in the transport 300 km. Railways should do the same for distances 

work measured, for example, in tonnes, miles less than 500 km. The rest is certainly really work 

or kilometres. The rapidly increasing produc- for the ships combined with inter modal links to 

tion of goods in the “new” world fuelled by both rail and road hinterland connections. Land 

correspondingly increasing raw materials im- locked countries and regions exempted. 

ports Anz_BTJ_2007_PG and exports, have brought 12.01.2007 fleet utilisation 12:16 Uhr It Seite is really 1politics, 

traditions, attitudes, hab- 

rates up into the high 90ties for almost all shipits and transactional behaviour competing when 

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Maritime 

it comes to making a transport mode preference 

decision. Thus, the asymmetry of national and 

international transport politics need to change. 

Symmetry (all modes pay for their real costs 

of infrastructure and pollution), in the long 

run, wins and creates a sustainable competitive 

climate for all competitive transport modes. 

Counterproductive habits and transactional 

behaviour in entering into transport contracts 

need simply to stop and total solution economics 

and sustainability considerations to take 

over. If this means stronger political influence 

and measures and temporarily major challenges 

to parts of the transport industry, so let it be. 

Focus on equal competitive conditions. Stop 

subsidising every transport mode. 

Time to take a stand 

For more than 10 years now, the European 

Commission has through many well-meant 

initiatives tried to reduce some of the negative 

effects of transport. Particularly encouraging 

the transfer of freight from road to sea has 

been a major effort. Different means and aid 

instruments have been launched and retained 

in a desperate struggle to find effective mitigation. 

So far very few measures have really 

worked satisfactorily. 

The time has, therefore, come to take a 

serious stand with the transport industry and 

national politicians on changing the intracompetitive 

market conditions for the various 

transport modes. But remember, the battle can 

only be won when a full appreciation of the 

fact that the competitiveness of the sea and rail 

transport modes have grown out of a long tradition 

and historical events, dominated by protectionism 

and strong regulating cultures, and 

the road transport across borderlines, is really 

a post-war phenomenon based on simplicity, 

easy access, high flexibility and a “free” or costless 

infrastructure. 

Per Olaf Brett 


Maritime 

Reading the Green Book (4) 

Silence instead of a discus 

Consultations on the Green Book regarding Europe’s future maritime 

policy will come to an end on June 30 th and after the holidays, 

work on the White Book will begin in Brussels. 

It goes without saying that most of the 

answers to the question of whether the 

EU should have an integrated maritime 

policy have been positive. This 

was to be expected without the Green 

Book being published or anyone being 

consulted on the matter. 

In the first days of May, when we were 

about to close this issue of the BTJ, there were 

one hundred and fifty contributions in favour 

of the Green Book adoption stored on the following 

website: http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/post_green_en.html. 

Would it not be 

more proper to say though that there were only 

one hundred and fifty of them? 

Only one seaman 

The number of contributions will certainly 

grow significantly in the last weeks of consultations 

for it is difficult to imagine that, for example, 

the number of governments taking part 

in the discussions will continue to be just two. 

All the same, some of the proportions make 

one think and worry. Only a few more than 

fifty private persons took part in the discussion 


(the number is not exact for it is often difficult 

to classify an opinion as having been said on 

behalf of an institution or in one’s own name). 

From among the opinions and views voiced 

by various kinds of organizations, the largest 

share of them, namely twenty-five contributions, 

were delivered by business organizations. 

There were few opinions voiced by trade 

unions and professional organizations (7), still 

fewer came from sports and culture-related 

organizations (6). The men of science let the 

world know of their existence by merely having 

thirteen opinions. Apart from that, an organization 

from Japan also presented its views 

and so did two private persons from outside of 

Europe, namely from Brazil and Israel. 

A lack of responses from citizens in the EU 

countries is particularly worrying. Could a lack 

of knowledge of the existence of the Book itself 

and the ongoing consultations be the reason for 

this? In many cases this could surely have been 

the reason but the author of this publication 

informed its readers of the debate and supplied 

the relevant internet address in the best-selling 

Polish maritime magazine. Moreover, on the 

same occasion, information was also supplied 

regarding the translation of the document into 

the Polish language. It looks like everything was 

done in vain although it is difficult to believe 

that none of the magazine’s readers opened the 

internet website devoted to the Green Book. 

It is also surprising that among the opinions 

voiced by private persons, there was only 

one presented by a seaman. It would seem logical 

that the seamen’s trade unions should have 

called upon their members to come forward 

with contributions as this is often done by political 

or religious organizations that flood the 

authorities by thousands of letters. (Naturally, 

in this case we are not talking about the merely 

signing of ready-made forms). 

Not the right kind of questions 

The silence on the part of the public has its 

source, at least to a certain extent, in the way 

the Green Book was being edited and in the 

way the questions were being asked. Maybe 

the document should have been prepared in 

two versions – one for the institutions and the 

other for private persons? The Book does not 

give the tools the private contributors would 

need to fully answer the questions raised. To 

generate an informed debate, the Green Book 

should give the elements necessary to assess 

various options for an EU Maritime Policy. 

Maybe the questions should have been formulated 

in the form of a survey and made to look 

like a voting campaign? Already the first question 

on whether or not the EU should have an integrated 

maritime policy is more appropriate for a 

survey since it requires a yes or no answer. Besides, 

answers regarding general issues may only 

be obtained through questions on specific facts, 

as for example in the question: should an EU 

coastguard service be set up? This is particularly 

important in issues relating to sovereignty such 

as the case of the EU coastguard. 

It appears that questions like – do you wish 

that all certificates and procedures related to 

pleasure crafts and their crews be made uniform 

– will bring an answer contrary to that 

expected of the question regarding the joining 

of national uniform services. 

For this reason, the question whether or 

not an annual conference on best practice in 

maritime governance ought to be held should 

not have been asked at all since the answer to it 

is rather obvious. Instead, it would make sense 

to ask what should be done with proposals 

made during the conference? A question like

sion 

this would surely be politically incorrect but it 

would be interesting to learn how many persons 

think that the implementation of the proposals 

should be made obligatory. In this particular 

case we are dealing with a sort of double-standard 

thinking which should be taken into consideration 

in the process of the implementation 

of integrated politics. Anyway, during the work 

on the Green Book, the knowledge on how a 

public debate and public opinion surveys can 

be moderated has surely been neglected. 

It seems that local authorities on different 

levels have not seen to it that stakeholders 

from different sub-regions, sectors and 

socio-economic groups were encouraged to 

take part in the debate and had the possibility 

of doing so. Besides, such initiatives could 

have come from social or business organizations 

such as, for example, the cluster organizations. 

The fifty contributions mentioned 

earlier show that consultation through a mere 

centralized procedure between the EC and the 

European individuals is inefficient and should 

be followed by a whole range of initiatives at 

sub-regional and more local levels. 

Unfortunately, neither universal nor suitable 

maritime and coastal forums have been established 

nor their networks. The loss is greater 

since the realization of what will be written in the 

Maritime 

White Book will require both public participation 

and a general “shift in thinking”. Anticipating 

both the needs and menaces, we should value the 

time more and act in advance by arousing public 

awareness, taking up educational activities, creating 

transparent data-bases and reviewing legal and 

institutional options for implementing the policy. 

Since it now seems that the past year has 

been lost as far as most of the said goals are 

concerned, the Group of Commissioners responsible 

for the process of making the White 

Book should make sure that it continues to 

have the character of a public debate. Maybe it 

is worth making it look right from the start as 

if it were a campaign aimed at implementing 

the integrated maritime policy? 

Marek Błuś 


Maritime 

Elbląg – the forgotten Polish port in the south-east of the Baltic Sea 

No transit to an open sea 

In Elbląg, a city of 120 thousand inhabitants, there is the only sea 

port on the Baltic Sea that has no access to the open sea. 

The port is located six kilometres 

from where the Elbląg River flows 

into the Wiślany Lagoon – a water 

area separated from the Gulf 

of Gdańsk by the narrow Wiślana 

Spit. The open sea can only be accessed 

via the Pilawska Straits, located close to 

the port of Baltijsk on the territorial waters of the 

Russian Republic. Regrettably, due to some political 

misunderstandings, the Russians have been 

refusing the right of transit for foreign vessels 

through it. This is why the Polish government is 

planning to dig a canal through the spit. 

The terminal is already there 

Since the end of WW2 till the beginning of 

the 1990s, Elbląg has not been used as a maritime 

port and this is why a major part of its 

infrastructure had to be built anew – explains 

Julian Kołtoński, the sea port director. 

The reactivation of the port entailed, 

among others, the construction of a modern 

3,500 square meter trans-shipping-storage 

terminal that is capable of handling up to 

600 thousand tonnes of mass cargo and 150 

thousand tonnes of general cargo. 

The structure is adapted for assembling 

large-sized storage constructions. With the 

help of its facilities, the first clients have already 

been importing Russian coal while oth- 

An island instead of the Wiślana Split 

The Gulf of Gdańsk 

Gdańsk 

The Vistula River 

POLAND 

Projected 

canal 


Elbląg 

ers are interested in the trans-shipment of fertilizers, 

grains and lumber. Currently, the port 

of Elbląg handles, for the most part, sea connections 

to the Russian enclave of the Kaliningrad 

Zone and the coastal navigation in the 

area pertaining to the Wiślany Lagoon. 

The ports in the Kaliningrad Zone, the 

small Scandinavian ports and those in the Baltic 

Republics, and sporadically also the ports 

located on the North Sea will, constitute our 

foreground. Thanks to the inland water connections, 

Elbląg can already now function as 

a strong feeder port for Gdańsk and Gdynia 

while in the future it will also service the inland 

ports in Germany – adds director Kołtoński. 

They do not want to stay 

on the island 

The project of digging a canal through the 

Wiślana Spit was confirmed by the Polish government 

in 2006 to be one of the priority investments 

for the maritime economy. The canal 

would be fifty meters wide and five meters deep. 

It is also planned to further deepen the existing 

waterway. If the investment goes ahead, the port 

of Elbląg will be able to receive 3.5 – 4 thousand 

tonnes of deep sea vessels that are 90 meters long 

whose draught is maximally 3-4 meters. The construction 

of the canal is to cost 230 million złotys 

and it is to be partially co-financed by EU funds. 

Wiślana Split 

Wiślany Lagoon 

Pilawska 

Straits 

Kaliningrad 

RUSSIA 

It is, however, not certain if these plans are going 

to be realized because of the protests by ecologists. 

They claim that such a canal would impair 

the ecosystem of the lagoon. Also the local authorities 

of the lagoon sea-resorts joined in the protests 

since they fear that cutting them off the mainland 

would diminish their tourist traffic. There is now 

a 50 percent chance that the project will be realized. 

The blocking of the plan does not, however, 

shatter the port’s hopes for its development plans. 

It is still possible that an agreement will be reached 

with the Russian Republic on unblocking the Pilawska 

Straits or on deepening the inland waterway 

on the Szkarpawa River that interconnects the 

Wiślany Lagoon with the Gdańsk agglomeration. 

Elbląg is counting on investments 

and tourists 

Elbląg has a great potential for development 

despite the obstacles. Among others, 

it could serve as a platform between Europe 

and Kaliningrad. The city authorities also 

count on tourists who, they hope, will be 

drawn there by, among others, the Ostródzko-Elbląski 

Canal. This is why a frontier 

crossing has already been built here which 

complies with the Schengen agreements. 

Also a bridge and a road interconnecting 

the port with the city and the Russian border 

have been constructed. Furthermore, the 

city’s marina has also been modernized. 

There are 60 hectares of attractive areas 

worthy of industrial and tourist investments 

here – encourages director Kołtoński. He 

thinks that Elbląg’s assets are its low port fees 

and its attractive geographical location. It is a 

splendid place for small-sized companies doing 

export sales to the Scandinavian countries. 

The labour costs and real-estate prices are the 

lowest here in all the Baltic region, while qualifications 

of potential employees are high. 

The other asset of Elbląg is its location on 

the border of two zones that is attractive for 

yachting: the Baltic coast, the Warmian and 

Masurian Districts. These two areas are connected 

by the picturesque Ostródzko-Elbląski 

Canal where, thanks to a system of slipways/ 

skids, river ships overcome the difference in 

levels by being drawn on tracks by a system 

of lines. This monumental construction is the 

only one in Europe where ships actually cover 

part of their journey on grass. 

Kuba Łoginow

Baltic Transport 

b i m o n t h l y - d a i l y c o m p a n i o n 

Journal 

Asia goes Baltic 

Present, yet not always visible ..................................................................................... 28 

Far East shipping on the Baltic Sea 

Closer than you would expect ...................................................................................... 32 

The Baltic Region sees a greater interaction 

with Asia as trade flourishes with Europe 

The fastest routes from Europe to the Far East ..................................................... 34 

Finland attracts Asia most of all 

Baltic Pearl – a Russian Chinatown ............................................................................. 35 

Shanghai investor is building 

a district of 35 thousand inhabitants in St. Petersburg 

Asia does not want to go to Lithuania ....................................................................... 36 

The Baltic republics remain in the background of China’s interests 

First a terminal, then roads ............................................................................................ 37 

Poland will be part of the Chinese transport network 

40% success ......................................................................................................................... 37 

Denmark is investing in Asia 

and offers attractive opportunities to Asian companies

Report 

Far East shipping on the Baltic Sea 

Present, yet not always 

Shipping has become the first, earliest 

truly global business, long before anyone 

could even think of, now – such a fashionable 

term as “globalization”. 

The Far Eastern shipping business was no exception. The 

world, not excluding Europe and the Baltic Sea Region, 

has been familiar with big shipowner names for decades, 

initially from Japan (Sanko, NYK, MOL and many 

more), later from South Korea (Hyundai Merchant Marine, 

Hanjin, PAN Ocean), Singapore and Hong Kong, 

Taiwan and later the People’s Republic of China (especially in the recent 

20-30 years or so – reflecting the new “open” approach of the Chinese 

government in the post-Mao and recent commercialization era 

in China), and eventually increasingly from many other Far Eastern 

countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. 

Tramp vessels from Japan or Korea, but especially from China, are 

very often to be seen in the Baltic countries’ ports on a daily basis. 

They not only serve the Far Eastern countries’ foreign trade but are 

also increasingly cross-trading and serving foreign customers and foreign 

ports. However, these tramp vessels are much more difficult to 

trace in a systematic way and are hard to quantify. 

Looking at liner or quasi-liner shipping services reveals more obvious 

and transparent examples of the Far Eastern companies’ presence in the 

European shipping market and the Baltic Sea in particular. It is limited to 

a few isolated instances rather than showing any general trend. However, 

this presence, even if it is not too impressive in the number of companies 

involved, is far from being weak or insignificant when the market share 

and position or carried volumes are taken into consideration. 

Far Eastern companies’ ships may sometimes not be visible in the 

Baltic even if these shipping companies’ presence in the shipping services 

market in the area is quite strong. This applied in the past and still 

applies to all major Far Eastern liner operators and container carriers, 

such as: Hanjin, Evergreen Group, NYK, K Line, Mitsui-OSK Lines, Hyundai, 

Yang Ming Line, M.I.S.C., Sinotrans, etc. 

This is also the case with two huge Chinese companies – COSCO 

Container Lines and CSCL. Both are present on the Baltic and offer 

services there, through a network of their own subsidiaries or joint 

ventures with local companies but not with their own ships calling at 

Baltic ports. They use independent feeder operators instead or feeder 

ships of their global alliance partners. 

Either affiliates or joint ventures 

China Ocean Shipping Company is a USD 17 billion corporation 

focusing on the goal of enabling commerce around the globe. It is 

an international giant, specialising in shipping and modern logistics, 

serving as a shipping agency and also providing services in freight 

forwarding, shipbuilding, ship repairing, terminal operation, trade, 

financing, real estate and IT industry; with the aim at taking one of 

the leading roles in all of these sectors. 

The company owns and operates a variety of merchant fleets of 

some 600 vessels which achieve an annual traffic volume of more than 


300 million tons. Ships and containers are shuttling among 1,300 ports 

in more than 160 countries around the world. 

As a global company, COSCO has formed a transnational operating 

network capable of reaching all major areas of the world. This applies to 

the Baltic region, too. 

COSCO has basically two principles on how it internationalises: it 

either operates via wholly-owned affiliates or establishes joint ventures 

with local logistics companies. COSCO has fully-owned subsidiaries and 

joint ventures in the Baltic Sea region in Germany, Russia, Poland, Finland 

and Denmark. COSCO operates in the Baltic Sea region through 

its European headquarters which are located in Hamburg, Germany. 

In Finland, the presence of COSCO also dates back to the 1960s but, 

it was only in 1995, when Cosfim Oy was founded as a joint venture of 

COSCO Europe GmbH and the Finnish logistics company John Nurminen 

Group. Cosfim has valuable experience in the transit business 

which is lacking in other Nordic affiliates. That is why Cosfim used to 

take care of the business in St. Petersburg, as well. Nowadays COSCO 

Russia controls the operations in the whole of Russia. Cosfim still operates 

business in the Baltic States in which Cosfim has its own subagents. 

To serve Baltic ports, COSCO hires cargo space onboard feeder vessels 

from independent “public services” (common carrier) companies such 

as BCL, based in Gdynia, Poland. Baltic Container Lines (BCL) is however 

majority-owned by Chipolbrok. This company is probably the most 

distinctive example of co-operation between shipping companies from 

China and other Baltic countries. The Shanghai- and Gdynia-based governments 

own the joint stock company Chipolbrok and it was the first 

such joint venture between any Baltic and Far Eastern country. Owned 

on the basis of equal shareholding of both partner countries, Chipolbrok 

is managed through the Chinese shipping giant COSCO which 

delegates managers to its Shanghai headquarters. COSCO offers slots 

on three BCL vessels, linking the Polish ports of Gdynia, Gdańsk and 

Szczecin with the German hubs of Hamburg and Bremerhaven where 

the big, long-haul containerships operated by COSCO call. 

Five specialised fleets 

Another huge Chinese company, CSCL, also utilizes independent 

feeder ship owner services and does not maintain its own feeder 

fleet on the Baltic. 

China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) is a part of the China Shipping 

(Group) Company (CSG) involved in container liner services and other related 

services. It provides services to customers in: storage, transhipment, 

customs clearance, and other related declarations. Besides its own logistics 

and trade enterprises, container terminals and companies within the fields 

of property and insurance, CSG operates five specialised fleets under the 

name of China Shipping Group which consist of more than 450 vessels, 

including oil tankers, bulk vessels, passenger ships, container vessels and 

special cargo ships. The company’s Far East Europe line is now serving almost 

all Chinese-based ports. The domestic coastal transportation is covering 

more than 30 ports from South China to North China. 

Compared with other carriers, it is a dominant player in China with a 

share of over 50% in a significant number of domestic ports. Its domestic 

market share in certain ports is as high as 80-90%. Consequently, CSCL has 

become the second largest shipping company in China behind COSCO.

visible 

With a fleet adjustment for nearly eight years, CSCL has gradually 

formed a modern fleet and is currently positioned within the first six 

global liners in respect of overall strength. The company’s young fleet 

provides CSCL with an additional competitive advantage to stay at the 

industry forefront. 

Just one year after its establishment, China Shipping Group signed 

a joint venture agreement with Peter W. Lampke GmbH in 1998, for the 

establishment of China Shipping Agency (Germany) GmbH as a representation 

of CSCL in Hamburg, Germany. 

The European business operations of CSCL have since then been 

concentrated in Shanghai’s sister city Hamburg which is nowadays seen 

as one of the main gateways between Europe and the Far East, and especially 

between Europe and China. 

Recently, China Shipping opened an office in St. Petersburg. 

Lucky with low prices, wise with local people 

When China Shipping started as a group company, they were having 

rather low charter prices for the ships they chartered and similarly the 

prices for new ships were rather low. In addition, when a big part of the 

ships had been delivered, the freights went up. Most of the even newest 

ships were ordered a long time ago so also those ships arriving now are 

Report 

based on rather competitive prices at the yards. This is how China Shipping 

has been able to save a lot of money whereas other shipping lines 

have had to pay higher prices. Thus, the competitive advantage of the 

company is partly based on chance. China Shipping was lucky with low 

prices for ships and had ample time to start their operations as far as the 

growing trade is concerned. 

Another part of the competitive assets of the company stems from 

its long experience of operating in China. The company is familiar with 

the Chinese culture, and therefore they can cover the needs of their clients 

in China much better than other global companies. 

Similarly, there are agents with local people in Europe because the 

company believes that it is always good to have local people onsite. Local 

people know the market much better than the Chinese people do. 

Through joint ventures, CSCL has been able to learn how business is 

handled in a European context. CSCL runs seven “European lines”. The 

European ports of call that may be hubs or base ports for feeding CSCL’s 

clients’ containers to or from the Baltic ports are: Felixstowe, Hamburg, 

Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Southampton, Thamesport and Rotterdam. 

Deep-sea services plus Baltic feeders 

There are, however, some Far Eastern companies active in the Baltic 

area which have developed a more direct and visible presence on the 

region’s shipping lanes. 

One good example of such a company which offers shipping services 

and operates ships on the Baltic under its own “funnel mark” is OOCL. 

Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd. (OOCL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary 

of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed as Orient Overseas 

continued on page 30 

Photo: Piotr B. Stareńczak 


Report 

continued from page 29 

(International) Ltd. OOCL, headquartered in Hong Kong, is an international 

container transport and logistics service provider. Linking 

Asia, Europe, North America, the Mediterranean, the Indian subcontinent, 

the Middle East and Australia/New Zealand, the company 

offers transportation services to all major east/west trading economies 

of the world. OOCL is one of the leading international carriers 

serving China, providing a full range of logistics and transportation 

services throughout the country. 

Obviously, it is not feasible for long-range high capacity container 

ships operated by OOCL to call at Baltic ports but the Hong Kong 

headquartered company runs its own feeder service linking Baltic 

countries with Western European hub ports. 

Next year, OOCL will celebrate the 10 th anniversary of its Scan 

Baltic Express (SBX) Service. The service has grown steadily to 

meet customer demand and is now regarded as the leader in service 

quality in the region. 

Since 1998, the service has gone from strength to strength. Let us 

recall the words of Ted Wang, Managing Director, OOCL (Europe) 

Limited, on the occasion when it celebrated its 5 th anniversary in 

April, 2003: “We now have two separate weekly services using three 

vessels which together offer 1,000 TEU capacity each week to and from 

Finland and Russia. All three vessels are ice-strengthened which has 

proved essential during the harsh icy winter we have experienced this 

year in the Gulf of Finland. We carefully schedule the dedicated SBX 

vessels to ensure the best possible connections with OOCL’s deep-sea 

services at Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp. Our SBX service has 

grown step-by-step over the past five years in response to customer 

demand for general, reefer and project cargoes. We are delighted with 

the progress we have made in meeting the increasing needs of our 

customers to provide that vital link between the Scan Baltic region and 

Asia, especially China, North America and the rest of Europe.” 

21- and 14-day round voyages 

In 2001 OOCL expanded its weekly Scan Baltic Express Service 

from two to three vessels. From mid May 2001, the 21-day 

schedule included Antwerp – Thamesport – Hamburg – Gdańsk 

– St.Petersburg – Gdańsk – Hamburg – Hamina – St. Petersburg 

– Hamburg – Antwerp. This allowed an additional weekly call in 

St. Petersburg and the opportunity to consider ad hoc calls in other 

Baltic ports to meet customer needs. Riga was added to the schedule 

as a permanent port of call in July of the same year. The service 

was then carrying not only intra European traffic but also OOCL 

deep-sea cargoes to and from Poland, Finland, and Russia with relay 

at Hamburg and Thamesport. 

The most recent major enhancement of the service took place in 

May 2005. OOCL revised its schedule rotations to enhance its coverage 

of the fast expanding Scan Baltic region. From 2005 OOCL had two 

separate dedicated fixed-day weekly service schedules using a total of 

five modern ice-breaking vessels with the latest one, OOCL St. Petersburg, 

joining the service in early June 2005. 

One loop of SBX service, namely the SBX1, has since been 

served by three 600-TEU vessels, OOCL Narva, OOCL Nevskiy 

and OOCL St. Petersburg, operating on a 21-day round voyage 

with a call schedule including: Rotterdam – Antwerp – Hamburg 

– Gdańsk – St. Petersburg – Gdańsk – Hamburg – Rotterdam – St. 

Petersburg and Rotterdam. The second loop, SBX2, was equipped 

with two vessels – OOCL Neva (600 TEU) and OOCL Novgorod 

(500 TEU), operating on a 14-day round voyage with the rotation: 

Rotterdam – Grangemouth – Hull – Antwerp – Rotterdam 


– Klaipėda – Helsinki – Hamina – Rotterdam. Containers to/from 

Asia, Australia and North America can be relayed via Rotterdam 

and Antwerp to/from the SBX service. 

Far Eastern companies are not only present on the Baltic within the 

container shipping market. The other area of strong presence is shortsea 

ro-ro and feeder vehicle carrier operations. 

Between Tokyo and Stockholm 

United European Car Carriers is the leading short sea operator in 

Europe, transporting more than 1.9 million new vehicles per year on behalf 

of the global automotive industry (with the number of transported 

units rising well above two million, when other ro-ro units are taken 

into consideration as well). As a major logistics provider, UECC maintains 

it is able to offer total management solutions which encompass the 

full transport chain, from the manufacturing plant through to final retail 

destination. In addition to a fleet of 27 purpose-built vessels, UECC 

also operates its own vehicle handling centres and provides full tracking 

information at each unit level using the latest IT-systems. The company 

employs some 850 staff ashore and afloat. 

UECC is owned in equal shares by Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha 

(NYK) of Tokyo, one of the world’s largest shipping companies and by Wallenius 

Lines of Stockholm, Sweden’s foremost shipping enterprise. This ownership 

structure ensures very strong financial backing for the company. 

UECC’s shipping network covers the whole of Europe, from the Baltic 

Sea in the North to the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. 

Among the company’s most recent developments in expanding on 

the Baltic market was its starting up of a new service on the 5 th of March 

from the Swedish port of Wallhamn to Fredericia in Denmark. The new 

service is a part of the weekly itinerary Zeebrugge – Malmö – Wallhamn 

– Fredericia – Emden – Sheerness – Zeebrugge, operated by m.v. 

Autorunner. The base cargo from Wallhamn to Fredericia is Koreanproduced 

Hyundai and Kia units for the Danish market which arrive in 

Wallhamn on the car carrier EUKOR’s deep sea vessels. 

Another example of UECC’s Baltic liner connection is its “Sweden-Poland 

Service” with weekly calls of the ro-ro ship Borden to Zeebrugge on the 

North Sea and Gdynia (Poland) and Malmö (Sweden) on the Baltic. UECC 

also runs a service linking Bremerhaven with Oslo and Drammen in Norway 

twice a week and a “Finland Service” linking Kotka / Hanko in Finland 

with Bremerhaven once a week with the vehicle carrier Transgard. 

Cars and high and heavy ro-ro cargoes 

A similar market area, namely – short sea ro-ro shipping and feeder 

car carriers operations on the Baltic – attracted also another Japanese 

shipowner, without a European partner in this case. Japanese “K” Line 

has a group company providing a short sea car carrier service in Europe. 

The company, “K” Line European Sea Highway Services GmbH (KESS), 

is one of the major short sea car carrier operators in Europe, transporting 

approximately 500,000 brand new vehicles a year. 

KESS was founded on the 1st of July 2003 as a 100% owned subsidiary 

of “K” Line, succeeding the operations of E.H.Harms Car Feeder Service 

GmbH, a former joint-venture since 1991. From April 2005, KESS “K” 

Line European Sea Highway Services started a weekly direct ferry service 

from the Auto Terminal of BLG Logistics Automobile in Bremerhaven to 

the Finnish ports of Helsinki and Hamina and directly to St. Petersburg. 

For this reason, KESS chartered a special ro-ro vessel with the necessary 

ice class – the Volga Highway – which was designed to carry high 

and heavy loads. In St. Petersburg, KESS called at the Petrolesport where 

simplified customs procedures were granted. 

More than 10 years of shipping experience in the North Sea and Baltic 

Sea promoted the “K” Line subsidiary to a well-known carrier with

contracts with all major car manufacturers under high quality standards 

being approved by Lloyds’ Register ISO 9001:2000. 

The service network of KESS covers the whole of the North and 

Baltic Sea area, ranging from the UK to Finland with seven vessels 

in service. Over recent years, a couple of modern, high specification 

newbuildings from Gdynia Shipyard entered the service in KESS colours. 

These ships (previously already described in the “BTJ”) are also 

suitable for high and heavy ro-ro cargoes in addition to new cars. 

Regardless of the feeder KESS service, “K” Line sometimes also offers 

direct connections with the Far Eastern ports. With the call of the car 

carrier American Highway on 4 April 2007, the Japanese shipowner “K” 

Line inaugurated what the Port of Gdańsk Authority SA calls a regular roro 

service from Japanese ports to Gdańsk. The ship carried 1,010 Toyota 

cars that were loaded at the port of Nagoya. The vehicles were reloaded 

in Gdańsk and will be forwarded to Russia. It is expected that more 

shipments destined to this market will follow. Consequently, the Port of 

Gdańsk is growing to become one of the major transit ports for the eastern 

markets. The new shipping service provides the Gdańsk port with a 

minimum of one call on a monthly basis. The line is operated by two stateof-the-art 

identical car-carriers with a gross tonnage (GT) of 49,212. 

Shipowners’ cooperation 

Usually not with a strong direct regular shipping service present on the 

Baltic, but still worth mentioning, are some examples of close co-operation 

between Far Eastern and Nordic or Baltic countries-based shipowners. 

One such example is the operator of a huge fleet of large car carriers 

– EUKOR. The EUKOR’s base is the export of Hyundai Motor 

and Kia Motors from Korea, but the company also serves most of 

the other global automotive leaders. EUKOR directly operates about 

85 specialised vessels, and has 15-20 further ships on short-term arrangements 

at any given point in time – annually transporting over 

3 million cars to 160 different ports in 110 countries. 

Since EUKOR’s inception in 2002, following the acquisition of the 

car carrier division of Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), the company 

claims it has managed to combine the best of what Korea and Europe 

Report 

have to offer. Having Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors as shareholders 

(20%) gives them a unique growth platform within the industry. Adding 

to that the shareholdings of the Norwegian shipping giant Wilhelmsen 

Lines (40%) with its vast shipping experience dating back to 1861 and 

the leading Swedish shipping group Wallenius Lines (40%) – pioneers in 

car carrier operations since the 1950s – allows to risk the statement that a 

company with world class competencies was created. 

Another well-known shipping company with both Far Eastern and European 

stakeholders is Gearbulk. The company operating modern wide-hatch, 

box-shaped holds bulk carriers and con-bulkers is 60% owned by the Norwegian 

Kristian Gerhard Jebsen family and 40% by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines of Japan. 

The Kristian Gerhard Jebsen family has a long history in ship-owning and 

maritime operations both in the dry and liquid shipping business. The family 

owns Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi A/S (KGJS), the technical manager 

and crewing agent for all Gearbulk vessels. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is one of the 

world’s largest shipping groups with over 500 vessels and 7,000 employees. 

Also what was known as Bergesen – a traditionally rich Norwegian 

shipping company is now more of a Far Eastern one. Bergesen was taken 

over few years ago by the Far Eastern shipping giant Worldwide Group. 

Bergesen d.y., the predecessor to BW Gas (“BW” originating from initials 

of Bergesen Worldwide), was originally a pure crude oil transportation company 

but has since developed a significant presence in the more specialised 

shipping markets for gas transportation. The track record and reputation of 

BW Gas as a safe and reliable operator places the company in a unique position 

to develop and build customer relations, in order to offer specialised and 

profitable services which give potential cost savings to its customers. Today, 

BW Gas is the world’s largest owner and operator of gas carriers and the clear 

market leader in the market for larger LPG carriers. The company also has a 

significant and increasing presence in the LNG sector. 

Piotr B. Stareńczak 

(profiles of companies the COSCO and CSCL 

are based mainly on and widely quoting the publication 

of Valtteri Kaartemo, entitled: 

“The Motives of Chinese Foreign Investments in the Baltic Sea Region”, 

Turku School of Economics / Pan-European Institute, 2007) 



Report 

Baltic Region Sees Greater Interaction with Asia as Trade Flourishes with Europe 

Closer than you would 

The Baltic region, with its strategic proximity 

to Central Europe and Russia on its eastern 

flank, is seeing greater interaction with Asia as 

trade between a number of Asian countries and 

Europe flourishes. 

Indeed, Russia’s significance is increasingly growing not only 

as a market but also as a supplier of important raw materials 

needed by Asia’s two biggest economies, China and India. The 

three countries are searching for new trade routes that are free 

from any threats, are economically viable and devoid of any 

obstacles. These new routes linking Asia and Europe would 

also have to serve markets in Europe, Russia, Central Asia, China, 

India and Southeast Asia. 

It is cheaper via Russia say the experts 

Russia, which would like to see a large volume of the European- 

Asian trade traffic pass through its territory, has also undertaken significant 

investments to modernize and upgrade its existing infrastructure 

and is aggressively developing ports along the Caspian Sea. 

Russia is also modernizing its rail and road infrastructure to 

facilitate efficient transport and re-routing of cargo to destinations 

such as Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin, Prague and Rotterdam. With its 

already well-established rail infrastructure connecting ports in the 

Baltic and the Caspian Sea, Russia is in a position to handle large 

volumes of cargo arriving from Asia without feeling the pressures 

of port congestion. Some of the shipments arriving in Russia come 

from Mumbai (India), Lianyugang and Tianjin (China), Bandar Abbas 

(Iran) or even Osaka (Japan). After passing through Russian territory, 

the shipments usually end at a port on the Baltic Sea coast. 

“You can track shipments from, say, Mumbai headed for Bandar 

Abbas in Iran. By means of road and rail, cargo shipments are forwarded 

to Iran’s Caspian Sea ports of Bandar Anzali and Amirabad 

from where they are sent to Astrakhan on the Russian Caspian Sea 

port. The cargo shipments are then taken across the Volga corridor 

to Moscow and St. Petersburg and, further, to northern Europe,” explains 

Mahendra Desai, a Mumbai-based shipping agent who regularly 

organizes shipments to Russia and the Baltic ports. 

According to Indian experts, this mode of shipment can cut transit 

time by 10 to 20 days, besides reducing the costs by some $ 400 

to $ 500 per container. Indeed, the North-South corridor also passes 

through other shipment routes such as China, Central Asia and Europe. 

This route, many Asian experts say, can become a “major passage” 

in the growing Asian-East European trade. 

Russia is pushing the development of its Makhachkala, Lagan 

and Olya ports. Makhachkala, on the west Caspian coast, connects 

Russia with Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in Central Asia. A regular 

ferry service, which can also transport heavy cargo, connects Makhachkala 

with Turkmenistan’s eastern port Turkmenbashi which 

maintains a rail line through the major part of Turkmenistan’s Karkum 

desert and connects Dushanbe, the capital of Turkmenistan. 


Indian connection 

China is, meanwhile, increasingly profiling itself as a focal point for 

trade with Central Asia and Europe, including the Baltic region. Indeed, 

China’s eastern port of Lianyugang, for example, is connected with Rotterdam 

in the Netherlands by a 10,900 km long rail link, passing through 

Xinjiang and Urumchi. Tianjin, north of Lianyugang, is also becoming 

an important trading port connected with Europe. 

India is also increasingly using the Tianjin route for trade with 

Central Asia. According to the Indian-CIS Chamber of Commerce 

and Industry, the Port of Bandar Abbas in Iran handles much of 

the cargo traffic from India to Central Asian Republic and, thence, 

with the rest of Europe. India has long-term plans to establish a 

150 km long rail track across its eastern region and another 200 

km inside Myanmar; this rail track would be linked to a rail line 

which China is planning to extend into Myanmar through Yunnan. 

India is eyeing this link to ship cargo not only to China but also to 

Central Asia, Russia and the entire Baltic region. 

But there are also other significant steps taking place that suggest 

that Asian players are keen to extend their reach into the Baltic

expect 

and other states in Eastern Europe. Many logistics companies are 

positioning themselves in the region to avail of the opportunities 

that unfold here. The Chinese logistics group, Kerry Logistics, for 

example, is expanding into the Baltic and East European region. It 

has established its first branch in the Czech Republic’s second-largest 

city, Brno. 

The new office is within close proximity of the Cernovica and 

Modrice Technology Park, and will provide the customers of Kerry 

Logistics added value through its own Asian network, allowing extensive 

sourcing, tapping new sales markets, etc. Kerry Logistics, 

which already has branch offices in eight European countries, has 

an extensive network in China with warehouse capacities, intricate 

IT systems, etc. 

Everybody flies to China 

Not only players in the sea trade but also those in the aviation 

sector of the Baltic region are involved in hectic activities in 

Asia. Individual airports in the Nordic region have increased the 

number of flights to destinations in Asia; a move that will, invari- 


Report 

ably, increase movement of goods between the Baltic and the Asia- 

Pacific region. Denmark’s Copenhagen airport is strengthening its 

hub function for Scandinavia and the countries along the Baltic 

region with a new direct cargo service to Asia. In January this year, 

Denmark’s central airport was operating 17 all-cargo flights a week 

to Asia, driven by growing imports, particularly, from China. Copenhagen 

officials told the Baltic Transport Journal that the success 

of the airport’s Asian flights was attributed to its “moderate 

fees” for all-cargo aircraft. 

The first all-cargo MD-11F aircraft of China Cargo Airlines 

(CCA) landed at Copenhagen on January 7th. CCA offers three 

weekly flights on its route Shanghai-Beijing-Copenhagen-Paris- 

Shanghai route, besides a Shanghai-Copenhagen-Beijing route. 

Korean Air Cargo flies from Copenhagen to Seoul while Singapore 

Airlines flies to Singapore, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai (Madras) and 

Chicago with a B747-freighter. 

Finnair, the national carrier of Finland, is also positioning itself 

in Asia; the airline will be operating five flights a week to Mumbai 

(India) effective summer this year. Finnair has started a daily flight 

to Delhi effective as of mid-May, raising the total number of weekly 

flights to India to 12. 

Finnair is also increasing its service to China and Japan. It now 

operates a daily flight to Hong Kong instead of the four flights a week 

so far. The number of flights to Guangzhou (China) will be raised to 

four a week, and to Osaka and Nagoya (Japan) to a daily flight and 

four a week, respectively. 

The Scandinavian airline SAS is expanding its existing network 

of flights to China. SAS, which has launched its first non-stop 

Stockholm-Beijing flight, will operate a total of 10 flights per week 

from this summer to Beijing. However, the number will further 

increase effective as of September to a total of 12 flights a week 

as a result of additional flights from Stockholm and Copenhagen. 

According to Lars Lindgren, the SAS chief executive, the airline 

will build Beijing as a gateway to China. As a result, SAS dropped 

plans to start a flight to Shanghai-Pudong effective as of April 8, as 

originally planned. 

The Baltic Exchange in Singapore 

Many companies are providing specialized tools that will be 

useful in the backdrop of the growing trade and cargo traffic expected 

with the Baltic region. The Czech company Jerid, for example, 

is offering software for calculation of rail freight for the CIS 

and Baltic region in response to demand for such a tool. The Jerid 

software, together with a group of calculation modules, provides 

information about the cargo, the price per ton, distances and duration 

of transport from the border railway station to the destination 

railway station in the CIS or Baltic country. 

A pointer to the growing interaction between the Baltic region 

and Asia is provided by the Baltic Exchange establishing an Asia- 

Pacific representative office in Singapore, aimed at developing 

the Baltic freight market information and forging closer contacts 

with the growing Baltic Exchange members in the region, whose 

number is swelling. 

Indeed, the establishment of the Singapore office by the Baltic 

Exchange was considered to be such an important step that Singapore’s 

minister of state for finance and transport, Lim Hwee Hua, 

personally attended the opening of the office on April 3rd, 2007. 

“This office will further enhance the interaction between the two 

regions,” Jeremy Penn of the Baltic Exchange predicts. 

Manik Mehta 


Report 

Finland attracts Asia most of all 

The fastest routes from 

Europe to the Far East 

There are four main routes of transport between 

the EU and Russia, all of which are directly connected 

to the Trans-Siberian railway and the Far 

East: the route via Finnish ports, the route via 

Russian ports, the route via Baltic ports and the 

land route via Germany, Poland and Byelorussia. 

Finland attracts Asia most of all. The Finnish eastern land 

border with neighbouring Russia is the longest in the EU. 

Security and highly developed infrastructure such as the 

Finnish airports, ports, railways and roads, offer a good 

potential for efficient logistics services, transport channels 

and value-added services. 

The fastest both air and rail routes from Europe to the Far East 

go via Finland. 

On the same rail gauge 

The national Finnish carrier, Finnair, operates the fastest routes between 

Europe and Asia from Helsinki to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, 

Hong Kong, Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. 

By rail, the 11-day link to the Pacific Russian harbours is twothree 

times faster than maritime routes. Finland is the only EU 

country having the same rail gauge as Russia. The goods can be 

transported in a very short time from the Russian border to Helsinki 

or Turku located on the west coast of Finland. 

The Northern East-West Freight Corridor project is recommended 

as a new route between East and West. This transportation channel leads 

from North America to north-eastern China. Freight is first shipped to 

Finland through the Norwegian harbour of Narvik or coming from other 

parts of Europe, and then by rail through Russia or Kazakhstan to China. 

This channel will increase freight volumes in both directions and will 

be of great interest to international logistics companies. The Far Eastern 

countries take Finland’s advantages and long-term experience in Russian 

cargo traffic into account, easy border crossings, modern crossing points, 

advanced logistics services as well as frequent ferry connections to European 

harbours. For example, a rail-ferry combination from Moscow to 

Germany via Finland is faster than cargo through Central Europe. 

Strong reasons to invest 

In September 2006, Helsinki hosted the ninth European Union– 

China summit. Chinese representation was presided over by the prime 

minister, Wen Jiabao. Both sides expressed their satisfaction over the 

cooperation between the EU and China in the field of transport. They 

emphasized the need to continue the policy of dialogue in the framework 

of EU–China maritime transport and they supported the efforts 

of shipping companies of both sides to run business in each other’s ter- 


ritory. They are of the view that the two sides need to strengthen their 

position in coordination and cooperation in international organizations 

including the International Maritime Organization and WTO. 

For China, Japan, South Korea and others, the Far East tigers 

there are several strong reasons to invest in Finland. The most important 

is modern infrastructure offering a great potential for new, 

efficient logistics services, transport channels and value-added services. 

Also competitive operating costs, a qualified and competitive 

workforce with good language skills attract Asia to Finland. 

An increasing number of logistics and transportation companies 

mainly from China, Japan and South Korea currently expanding or setting 

up operations in Finland. Some companies have been present for 

many years. Most of them established a joint venture with Finnish companies 

or invested in Finnish capital. 

“K” Line /Europe/ Ltd., the European subsidiary of the global Japanese 

shipping and logistics company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd has its 

office in Helsinki. “K” Line is committed to providing safe, cost-effective 

and environmentally-friendly services for all types of cargo. 

Another global shipping company from Japan, NYK Line /Europe/ 

Ltd, has been present in Helsinki since June 2003. 

Cosfim Oy was founded in 1995 as a joint venture of COSCO Europe 

GmbH, the European head office of China Ocean Shipping Company 

COSCO and the Finnish logistics company John Nurminen Oy. 

Hyundai Merchant Marine Scandinavia came to Finland from 

South Korea. 

ICT – a promising branch 

Japan invested in BT Varastotekniikka Oy which is always known 

for its innovative solutions in warehouse equipment technology. Located 

in Vantaa close to Helsinki, it is one of the biggest warehouses of 

its branch in Europe. 

Japanese cars giants Toyota, Honda, Nissan have their logistics services 

and materials handling companies, for example, Toyota Logistics 

Services Finland Oy or Toyota Material Handling Finland Oy. 

A few years ago the national Chinese carrier Air China opened an 

office in Helsinki as well. 

ICT’s branch attracts Finnish and even more Asian firms. 

Most of them are Japanese and of Taiwanese origin. There are Acrodea 

Inc., Allied Telesyn, Embe Systems Oy, Fujitsu Services Oy, Fujitsu 

Siemens Computers IT Product, Hitachi Data Systems Oy, Konica Minolta 

Business Solutions, NEC Finland Oy, Sharp Corporation, Toshiba 

Europe and many others from Japan as well as Acer Finland Oy, Delta 

Energy Systems Finland Oy, Foxconn Oy, Yageo Finland Oy from Taiwan. 

Also, Chinese Lenovo Technology and South Korean Samsung 

Electro Mechanics and Samsung Electronics have their companies in 

Finland. The future for new Asian investments in logistics, transportation 

and ICT branches seems to be very promising for Finland. 

Franciszek Loose

Shanghai investor is building a district of 35 thousand inhabitants in St. Petersburg 

In nearly one hundred of the biggest cities in 

the world – New York, London, Paris and many, 

many more – Chinatowns were built: Chinese 

districts (also called – on account of their large 

sizes – Chinatowns), inhabited to a large extent 

by the Asian minority (Chinese mostly). 

Chinatowns are traditionally dominated by Chinese architecture, 

culture, menus in restaurants, and even the supplies in 

shops… In Russia, the first Chinatown came into existence 

in Moscow. Another one is being built on the Baltic Sea, in 

St. Petersburg, over the past two years. 

President’s approval 

“This is our biggest investment in history, not only in St. Petersburg, 

but in Russia in general” – says the Chinese economic consul in St. Petersburg, 

Shen Junlan. It can be considered that the realization of the project 

started in 2003. It was during a visit of the Russian president, Vladmir Putin 

in Beijing, when the final shape and location of the Chinatown was determined. 

In April 2004, the heads of the Shanghai Industrial Investment 

corporation and the representatives on investment issues of the Department 

of Administration of St. Petersburg signed a contract amounting to 

the astronomical sum of 1.3 billion USD (the current cost of construction, 

according to various sources, will amount to 1.5 or even 2 billion USD). 

In December 2004, the executives of the Shanghai Industrial Investment 

met with the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko. As it was officially 

announced, both parties expressed their “full mutual understanding”. 

In October 2005, the construction work began. 

Too expensive for a referendum 

However, the inhabitants of the Krasnoselsky District, located in the 

south-western part of the city within the city limits of the new Chinatown, 

did not share the optimism of Ms. Matvienko. The opponents of the investment 

organised several demonstrations. These were held by persons connected 

with the yacht club in liquidation, on the grounds on which the new 

Chinatown is being built, the city inhabitants are afraid of a “deluge of a 

Chinese minority”, as well as those who simply were not able to understand 

why a Russian investor could not undertake such a prestigious investment. 

The opponents of the Chinatown were even collecting signatures to organise 

a referendum. They argued that the citizens of St. Petersburg should 

have the right to vote in this matter, as the decision to build a Chinatown had 

been made passing them over. The authorities of the city did not, however, 

carry out a referendum. Matvienko justified it in various ways: a labourious 

organisation of the very referendum, an unrepresentative (sic!) voting 

result, but first of all that a referendum was an expensive undertaking and 

with that money, it was better to organise promotional actions to persuade 

the inhabitants that the coming of the Chinatown into being means nothing 

but profits for the city. Let us add that the residence of president Putin is but 

a few kilometres’ distance from the new Chinatown. 

“A foreign investment does not mean a foreign intrusion, it is first to 

serve the Russians,” Ms. Matvienko defended. It is estimated that among the 

35 thousand persons who are to live in the Chinatown, there will be but a few 

hundred Chinese. Rumor has it, however, that Chinese businessmen inclined 

to buy apartments in Chinatown, will have a pre-emption to buy the most 

Report 

Baltic Pearl – a Russian Chinatown 

attractively-situated apartments, i.e., those with a view on the Gulf of Finland. 

Both the employees of the Chinese Consulate and the representatives of the St. 

Petersburg administration try to dissipate other fears of the citizens: in their 

opinion, there will be no room for illegal Chinese immigrants in Chinatown. 

In addition, it is included in the contract that the Shanghai Industrial Investment 

will give 200 million USD towards “social development” of the quarters 

bordering with Chinatown. A dozen or more thousands of Russians in 

total have found and are still to find employment in the construction of Chinatown. 

Polls, conducted at the beginning of the construction work showed, 

however, that the project had more opponents (40%) than supporters (34%). 

The authorities of St. Petersburg have long wanted to create a “new city”, 

which would attract the interest of tourists equally with the Hermitage, Aurora 

cruiser, and Winter Palace. The rivals of the Chinese were, among others, 

an American project, which assumed building skyscrapers on the shore 

of the Gulf of Finland, or the English-Dutch project with its “city of the 

future”, with its buildings in untypical shapes. However, the Chinese were 

chosen, who named their project the “Baltic Pearl.” 

Four basic elements 

The investment occupies 180 ha. The design includes apartments of a 

total area of over one million sq. meters and commercial facilities (over 400 

thousand sq. m.). In the beginning, it was assumed that the price for 1 sq. 

m. would be 600 USD. The firms acting as agents in selling (or leasing) the 

apartments considered, however, that such a price would cause the investment 

to be unprofitable and suggested prices between 1,300 and 1,400 USD. 

It drove away potential customers (both from Russia and from abroad), the 

demand for apartments in Chinatown dropped significantly. As a result, the 

price dropped and it currently hovers around 1,000 USD per sq. m. 

The entertainment and commercial part of St. Petersburg’s Chinatown 

will be very extensive: a giant shopping centre, cinema, theatre, restaurants, 

a few hotels led by the luxurious “Nevskij Hotel”, sports complex, aqua park, 

hospital… In the investment brochures, the designers write that “in the basic 

concept of the building of Chinatown – the Baltic Pearl”, four basic elements 

have been taken into consideration: international quality standards, 

care for the environment, development and well-being, and comfort. 

“It is an investment which will be the motor force of development of our 

region and, possibly, even our country,” sums up Governor Matvienko. 

It is expected that the new Chinatown will start “living” in 2010. The 

investment will most probably be completed in 2013. 

Paweł Rydzyński 


Report 

The Baltic republics remain in the background of China’s interests 

Asia does not want to go 

to Lithuania 

The investments of the countries from the Far 

East in Europe look very impressive but they 

concern almost exclusively the part of the continent 

that some call “the old Europe”. 

In Germany, in Hamburg alone, there are several hundred Chinese 

companies. The Austrian authorities are planning to allot around 

100 million Euros for the construction of a sort of Silicon Valley 

close to Vienna for scientists and researchers from China. The Italian 

prime-minister recently declared that Italy would become China’s 

gateway to Europe. Nonetheless, already now there are truly 

Chinese towns in Italy with up to several thousands of Chinese dwellers. 

In the north, in Sweden, Chinese developers are building a whole city 

that will be distinctively Chinese in character, have its own pagoda and 

an image of Buddha. A centre for business initiatives is to be constructed 

there for businessmen from China and Europe. This does not come as a 

surprise since Chinese investments in Sweden have recently risen from 

almost nothing to being half of all the country’s foreign investments and 

even greater than Germany’s investments in Sweden. 

Surrounded by products “made in China” 

On the other side of the Baltic Sea – in Lithuania, on the other hand, the 

Chinese and all the Asiatic investments do not even constitute a few percent 

of all the country’s foreign investments. The Lithuanian authorities seek to 

keep proper diplomatic relations with China. In 2002, during the Chinese 

president’s, Chin Jang Zemmin, visit to Lithuania, the local police arrested 

Jurga Ivanauskaitė, a well-known writer engaged in supporting Tibet in order 

to prevent her from organizing a protest. Despite all this, Chinese investors 

do not pay much attention to the Lithuanian economy. They view Lithuania 

primarily as an outlet for their cheap products. It is nowadays difficult to buy 

anything that is not “made in China” – not only in Lithuanian bazaars and 

trade centres – but also in the shops of renowned companies. 

Year in year out, China exports commodities to Lithuania worth over 

one billion Litas per year which is equivalent to 300 million US dollars, 

while Lithuanian exports to China are only worth 10 million Euros. The 

great difference in trading balance between the two countries consolidates 

in by the Chinese a low interest in both Lithuania’s investment and trading 

possibilities. The Chinese themselves admit it but also members from the 

Lithuanian government’s delegation who took part in the forum, “Discover 

Lithuania – the gateway to Europe”, organized in China, could see it for 

themselves. The Chinese declared that they were interested in the Baltic 

country but that they still had too little knowledge about it. One of the most 

tangible results of the conference was that one of the Chinese firms declared 

its willingness to send its mission to Klaipėda in Lithuania. 

Klaipėda and the trade trusts 

It looks like the port of Klaipėda has the best chance of inspiring 

interest among Chinese businessmen. This is because the Chinese goods 

reach the European markets via the ports of Hamburg and Rotterdam. 


It is from there that they get to the EU countries and the remaining part 

of Europe, including Russia and Belarus. 

The port of Klaipėda could be competition for them since the Chinese 

goods would arrive faster from here to the Russian and Belarus markets 

but also to the whole Baltic region and the northern part of Sweden. The 

problem, however, is that the Chinese know very little about the Lithuanian 

gateway to the European markets. Till this day, there is only one Chinese 

company operating in Klaipėda, the so-called Chinese Trade Trust. Behind 

that rather pompous proper name there is merely a single company which 

specializes in the sales of Chinese sanitation. 

Similarly, another Trade Trust operating in the vicinity of Vilnius, 

close to one of the biggest bazaars in this part of Europe (in the 

town of Gariunaito) is merely a larger-sized retail and wholesale shop 

whose wares are sold on the bazaar. This only proves the great potential 

there is for the development of a commercial cooperation between 

Lithuania and China; but, it also proves how little interest China currently 

has for that type of cooperation. 

The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad is far more attractive 

It is the Hindus rather than the Chinese who are the pioneers in making 

the best of what Lithuania’s economic potential and the country’s relationship 

with the EU offer. Apparently, one Indian firm, namely – Indorami – invested 

in the construction of Orion Global PET, a factory in the Duty Free Zone of 

the port of Klaipėda. The investment was worth 100 million Euros. 

For the time being, however, this is Asia’s sole investment of such 

a great calibre not only in Lithuania but also in the other post-Soviet 

Baltic States. Today, it seems that the partners from Asia prefer the Duty 

Free Zone in Kaliningrad where Asiatic (including also the Chinese) 

investments amount to a good many millions of US dollars. Already 

this year, a Chinese car concern is planning to build a car factory worth 

300 million US dollars in Kaliningrad. 

In 2008, the factory is expected to deliver cars not only to Russia 

but also to the European market. This is one of the many investments 

made by the Chinese concern in the Russian enclave. When 

put together, their value is far greater than that of all the Asiatic 

investments in the neighbouring Lithuania. 

Krzysztof Szczepanik 

Only 6 percent of Lithuania’s trade turnover is made with the Asiatic 

countries, while Lithuania’s exports to these countries amounts 

to 1 percent of all Lithuania’s manufactured goods. The Asiatic 

countries’ investments in Lithuania constitute merely 0.07 percent 

of their overall foreign investments. 

Interestingly, Poland whose investments in Lithuania constitutes 

22.6 percent of the overall figure of 8.6 billion Euros for the year 

2006 is the country’s biggest investor now. This was caused by the 

Polish company, PKN Orlen, taking over the Lithuanian refinery Mazeikiu 

Nafta. Orlen paid Jukos, the former owner of the refinery, and 

the Lithuanian state a sum of over 2 billion US dollars.

Poland will be part of the Chinese transport network 

First a terminal, then roads 

China is playing an increasingly important role 

in the world economy. 

It is a leading exporter in many areas of industry. The giant trade 

exchange worth about several hundred billion US dollars necessitates 

the construction of a worldwide network of logistics connections. 

And, China has been developing one. 

The port of Gdynia has, since last year, become part of this 

network. In July of 2006, Gdynia Container Terminal SA (GCT) 

was opened. 

“GCT is an important link in the Hutchison Port Holdings network 

in Europe. It is expected to strengthen the HPH position in Northern 

Europe which has so far been connected with the ports in Felixstowe, 

Thamesport and Rotterdam” said John Meredith, the managing director 

of HPH group, at the opening of the terminal. Hutchison Port Holdings 

(HPH), with its headquarters in Hong Kong, is owned by Hutchison 

Whampoa Limited, a consortium held by Asia’s wealthiest businessman 

– Li Ka-shing, and is a company whose annual turnover amounts to 

thirty-five billion US dollars. 

HPH is a leading port operator in the world, with shares in twentyone 

terminals in the countries of Asia, Near East, Africa, Europe and 

both Americas. Currently, together with several transport firms, it is 

an operator at 251 wharves in forty-three ports. In 2005, 51.8 million 

TEU of goods was trans-shipped in HPH-owned terminals. The greatest 

amount – 6.5 million TEU- was trans-shipped in the Port of Hong 

Kong. The 100 million złoty terminal in Gdynia has far more moderate 

capacities. It is capable of trans-shipping 150 thousand twenty-feet containers. 

Its capacity is being increased all the time. The second phase of 

the terminal’s construction, currently realized, is to increase its capac- 

Denmark is investing in Asia and offers attractive opportunities to Asian companies 

40% success 

The smallest and southern-most country of the 

Nordic region is Denmark. 

And it is its advantage. According to a survey from March 2005 by 

the international consultancy firm William Mercer, the Danish capital 

Copenhagen ranks second in Europe, only surpassed by Vienna, Austria, 

when it comes to quality of life. With its strategic location and efficient 

infrastructure, Copenhagen serves as the hub and traffic linkage point 

between the homogeneous and affluent Scandinavian market consisting 

of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the integrated European 

economy. Denmark is perceived as a very attractive country to live and 

work in by foreign expatriates. In the greater Copenhagen region, more 

than 3,400 foreign companies have located their activities. 

About 2/3 of foreign trade is with other EU countries. Germany is 

clearly the most important bilateral trading partner, but Sweden and 

Great Britain are also of significance. Outside the EU, Denmark trades 

especially with Norway, the USA and Japan. Foreign companies considering 

the possibility of establishing business operations in Denmark can 

Report 

ity to 300 thousand TEU. Its completion is planned for this year. GCT 

services principally the feeder connections between Poland and the base 

ports in Western Europe. 

Much dynamism may be imparted to the Chinese investments in 

the Polish transport in the forthcoming years. A container terminal is 

but one of the links in the transportation chain. 

It has got to have convenient overland and rail connections with the 

continent. Chinese capital is planning to get involved in the modernization 

and development of the network of fast traffic roads in Poland. 

Polnord SA , a Gdańsk-based company, will take part in the realization 

of the said enterprises. It has already signed a letter of intent with China 

International Industry and Commerce Co. Ltd (CIIC) on cooperation 

in the realization of huge developing investments and the construction 

of roads and motorways in Poland. 

“The agreement provides for the possibility of utilizing the executive 

and labourers’ potential of the Chinese group,” said Bartłomiej 

Kolubiński, a board member of Polnord SA. 

The company will coordinate the cooperation of CIIC with other 

developing firms from the Prokom Group, active in the area of the 

building industry, but in particular with Pol-Aqua SA. 

The construction of the Technological Park in Wilanów, a representative 

district in Warsaw, will be the first phase of a joint venture with 

a Chinese firm from Beijing. The office buildings where the Chinese 

companies are investing in Poland will have their agencies have a usable 

floor area of thirty thousand square meters. 

The goods manufactured in Chinese factories will be sent abroad 

via, among others, the container terminals in Gdynia and Gdańsk. 

Jacek Klein 

use services offered by Invest in Denmark – part of the Danish Trade 

Council in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. 

Invest in Denmark’s results for 2006 show that 40% of the successful 

investment projects last year stemmed from Asian companies, 

compared with 35% from North American companies and 25% from 

European companies. The Director of Invest in Denmark, Elisabeth 

Manford, comments: “There is a growing trend for Asia to invest abroad, 

including in Denmark. The reason why Denmark is gaining ground is 

partly because we are investing in Asia, and also because we can offer 

attractive opportunities to Asian companies. Compared with the rest of 

Europe, we have some very competitive framework conditions, especially 

the flexible labour market which is especially attractive to Asian 

companies.” According to the Danish National Bank, direct investments 

by Chinese companies in 2006 were up 300% on the 2005 figure. Elisabeth 

Manford points out that there are some differences between the 

Asian countries in what they find attractive about Denmark: “Generally 

speaking, India and China are looking for market opportunities, while 

Taiwan, Korea and Japan are looking for competencies.” 


We welcome Unity Line 

to the Port of Trelleborg 

The intermodal hub between 

Scandinavia and Continental Europe 

www.trelleborgshamn.se 

trelleborgs.hamn@port.trelleborg.se 

P.O. Box 51, SE-231 21 Trelleborg, Tel: +46 410 363700, Fax: +46 410 363729 

Karpfangerstr 14, D-20459 Hamburg, Tel: +49-40-36 00 664-0, Fax: +49-40-36 00 664-29

Newsletter 

MAY/JUNE 2007 

The BPO Newsletter is prepared by the Baltic Transport Journal 

www.baltictransportjournal.com 

Baltic ports need more 

lobbying in Brussels 

For the first time, BPO organized a debate for 

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) 

and the European Commission. 

The debate was held in a building at the European Parliament – the 

heart of the EU decision-making centre. Mrs. Anne Jensen, a 

Danish MEP and member of the Transport Committee, officially 

hosted the event. 

As it was indicated by Bogdan Ołdakowski, Secretary General of BPO 

during his introductory presentation, the Baltic transport market is developing 

rapidly. Last year there was a 15 percent growth in container turnovers in 

the Baltic ports. With rapidly growing economies and trade with Russia, the 

Baltic States and Poland are the main factors stimulating the growing transport 

market. As a consequence, the high trade growth rates boost the investment 

in port infrastructures (container terminals, logistic services). There is 

no doubt that the future port capacity should accommodate international 

trade (last year the trade grew by 8 percent in all Baltic countries). The worries 

are rather in hinterland connections, not in ports as such – said Bogdan 

Ołdakowski. Summing up his presentation, he listed a few challenges that the 

Baltic transport market will face in coming years. In his opinion, the most important 

are: the future structure of container shipping and distribution in the 

region, the growth of shipping in the Baltic Sea and environmental concerns. 

Marc Vanderhaegen from the maritime transport policy unit (DG TREN), 

recalled the European Commission’s processes of its EU policies promoting 

SSS and Motorways of the Sea. He indicated that to apply for Motorways of 

the Sea projects, there must be two (or more) partners (e.g., ports) from at 

least two EU member states. The next call for MoS projects is planned for 

December 2007. He also underlined that the number of Marco Polo projects 

in the Baltic region is insufficient. New projects are very welcomed. The total 

amount of the Marco Polo fund is 450 mln Euro for the period 2007-2013. 

The Port of St. Petersburg, one of the fastest growing ports in the Baltic, 

is facing capacity problems – said Yury Orlov, Deputy Head in the port 

authority during his speech. The trans-shipment of containers the city is 

slow due to the pure road conditions. The Port of St. Petersburg invested in 

a new waterway to the port as well as in a ferry/cruise terminal. New ports 

around St. Petersburg are developing very fast (Ust-Luga, Vyborg, Vysock) 

and rather these ports will handle future trade with Russia. 

A debate moderated by Anne Jensen concentrated on the questions of 

money from EU funds for port investments and hinterland connections. At 

the end, Anne Jensen called on the delegates from the Baltic ports for more 

visible actions and more lobbying to promote the Baltic ports and regions 

as such in Brussels, as other European regions are doing. 

The debate was entitled: Transport Development in the Baltic Sea Region 

– Future Challenges and was held on 11th April 2007 in the European Parliament 

in Brussels. The seminar was attended by representatives of Baltic ports, 

Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the European Commission 

and European transport industry organizations. The program and 

the presentations are available on the BPO website: www.bpoports.com. 

Focus on Central 

& Eastern Europe 

It is time to book your dates for the 2007 BPO General Assembly. It 

will be associated with a conference entitled: Relations between the 

Baltic Region and Central and Eastern European Countries. 

This time the assembly will not take place in a port town but in the 

wonderful spa resort of Sopot. It is a kind of compromise between Gda ńsk 

and Gdynia, two important Polish ports that border Sopot from the north 

and south. The assembly will also give participants an opportunity to learn 

about Baltic and CEE relations, enjoy a spa and experience the BPO Golf 

Tournament (for beginners and advanced players). 

The place of the event is the newly renovated, historic Grand Hotel by 

Sofitel, just a few meters from the beautiful beach on the Gulf of Gdańsk. 

Draft program 

Thursday, 6 September, 2007 

9:00 – 12:30 • BPO and UBC Workshop on the Port and City Environment 

as a follow-up to the Intereg III B New Hansa Project 

12:30 – 14:00 • Lunch 

14:00 • Official opening of the General Assembly Official speeches 

14:30 • Conference: Relations between the Baltic Region and Central 

and Eastern European Countries 

SESSION I: CEE Outlook 

(including Economies, Trade, Environment, Culture, doing business 

in CEE countries) 

20:00 • Gala dinner 

Friday, 7 September, 2007 

8:30 – 9:30 • BPO Board Meeting 

9:30 • Conference continues: Relations between the Baltic Region 

and Central and Eastern European Countries 

SESSION II Transport and Logistics in CEE 

(including infrastructure development, Baltic-Black Sea corridor, 

West-East corridors, main transport and logistic sector challenges) 

12:00 • Conference summary 

12:30 – 14.00 • Lunch 

14:00 – 16.00 • General Assembly according to the By-laws 

16:00 – End of the BPO General Assembly and free time 

Saturday, 8 September, 2007 

10:00 • BPO Golf Tournament (Sierra Golf Club) 

11:00 • Golf Academy for beginners 

15:00 • End of the Tournament 

15:00 – 16:30 • Grill Party and Prize Ceremony 

For updates, please, visit: www.bpoports.com 


A connection of the ports of Vyborg, Vysock and Ust-Luga under the Maritime Port 

Administration of the Port of St.Petersburg is planned for 2007 

Welcome to St. Petersburg 

In the last couple of years an intensity for navigation in the Russian 

part of the Gulf of Finland has risen. 

It is connected with the fast development 

of the oil Port of Primorsk and 

the Port of Ust-Luga. 2006 was the first 

year when Primorsk handled more 

cargo than the Port of St. Petersburg. 

The specific thing about Primorsk is 

that it is exclusively an oil handling port. 

Table 1. Cargo turnover in Russian ports 

on the Baltic Sea in 2006 

(in million tonnes) 

Primorsk 65.9 

St. Petersburg 54.2 

Kaliningrad 15.1 

Vysock 13.3 

Ust Luga 4.5 

Table 2. Cargo turnover in the Port of 

Primorsk 

2006 65.9 

2005 57.3 

2004 44.6 

2003 17.7 

2002 12.4 

Primorsk, with a 65.9 million-tonne turnover, 

became the biggest port in the Baltic Sea. It 

is an extreme growth compared to the 12.6 million 

tonnes recorded in 2002, the first year the 

port was in operation. With the beginning of the 

construction of the new terminals in the Port of 

Primorsk on shipments of mineral oil, this spectacular 

trend is set to continue. 

In 2006 the Port of St. Petersburg handled 

54.2 million tonnes of cargo, 3.2 million less than 

the previous year. The small decrease is explained 

by the fact that the port was closed for one week 

in connection with carrying out the G-8 Summit 

in St. Petersburg. Containers account for the 

largest share of throughput – 28%, followed by oil 

products with 24% and metals with 11%. Chemicals 

account for 9% of the total while refrigerated 

cargo for 7% and coal ore and timber equal for 

5%. The port also handled a smaller amount of 

general cargo, grain, foodstuffs and break-bulk. 

The high rate of container handling in 

St. Petersburg is due to a dynamic growth in 


production and the export of paper products 

in the Russian Federation. In the last six years, 

export of containerized paper products via St. 

Petersburg has increased in numbers four-fold. 

Other containerized materials handled there 

are: building/construction materials, oil products, 

timber, chemicals and metals. 

In the last five years, the cargo turnover 

Table 3. Cargo turnover in the Seaport of 

St. Petersburg during the last 

six years 

2006 54.2 

2005 57.5 

2004 51.2 

2003 42.0 

2002 41.3 

2001 36.9 

Table 4. Yearly total ship turnover in St. 

Petersburg 

2006 26,502 

2005 29,183 

2004 27,251 

2003 22,794 

2002 22,468 

2001 22,125 

2000 19,796 

1999 18,011 

1998 16,037 

1997 14,871 

1996 11,039 

Table 5. The number of passenger-vessel 

calls at the port of St. Petersburg 

2006 349 

2005 416 

2004 442 

2003 296 

2002 210 

2001 221 

in St. Petersburg Port has increased almost 

1.5 times to 54 million tonnes. 

Principal causes for the growth in cargo 

turnover were the actions undertaken by the St. 

Petersburg branch FGUP “Rosmorport” and the 

commercial structures of the port. They were 

aimed at the reconstruction, modernization and 

construction of new terminals and on an overload 

of various kinds of cargoes. Between 2000 

and 2004, the following reloading complexes 

and objects in transport infrastructure were 

constructed and put into operation: 

– In 2002 reconstruction of Berth Nr. 29 for 

general cargoes and Berth Nr. 83 for container 

cargoes was finished; 

– Construction of a complex for the overload 

of mineral oil (Berths 3 and 4) Joint- 

Stock Company “Petersburg Oil Terminal”, 

where a berth capable of overloading 

9.2 million tonnes of mineral oil was completed 

in 2004; 

– Construction of a new reloading complex 

for reloading mineral fertilizers with a capacity 

of up to 5 million tonnes was completed; 

– Development of the container terminal; 

for example, at the end of November 2005, 

a through berth at the container terminal 

was completed where a million containers 

are overloaded. 

The Port of Primorsk is a branch of St. Petersburg 

Maritime Seaport Administration. The 

General Plan for 2007 intends to connect the 

ports of Vyborg, Vysock and Ust-Luga under St. 

Petersburg Maritime Seaport Administration, too. 

It would raise the efficiency management of the 

seaports in the Gulf of Finland. 

The calling of cruise ships to the port of 

St. Petersburg is one of the most important 

branches of the city’s tourism business. Tourism 

secures approximately 10% of the city’s income. 

Since 1996, the calls of cruise and passenger 

Table 6. Number of passengers (in thousands) 

visiting the Port of St. 

Petersburg 

2006 319.8 

2005 319.9 

2004 286.3 

2003 218.6 

2002 142.3 

2001 163.0

Photo: St. Petersburg Maritime Seaport Administration Photo: St. Petersburg Maritime Seaport Administration 

In 2010 St. Petersburg will be in the top five of the most frequently visited cities in the world 

vessels to the port of St. Petersburg have been 

steadily increasing. In 1995, the port was visited 

by 144 vessels with 64.9 thousand people as passengers. 

In 2006, the figure was 349 vessels with 

319.8 thousand passengers on board. 

According to forecasts for 2010, St. Petersburg 

will be in the top five of the most frequently visited 

cities in the world and that means that the number of 

visitors coming aboard cruise vessels will also grow. 

There is a Russian government project called 

Table 7. Enter data for vessels 

“Morskoy Fasad” which is designed to create a 

passenger terminal on the Vasilyevsky Island. The 

beginning of the construction of “Morskoy Fasad” 

is planned for 2008. 

The main fairway of the Port of St. Petersburg 

consists of the Kronstadt Ship 

Fairway and the St. Petersburg Sea Channel. 

One of the most important and strategic 

tasks that stands before St. Petersburg 

Maritime Seaport Administration is the recon- 

St. Petersburg: length – 260 m, width up to 40 m, draught up to 11 m (on fresh water) 

Primorsk: length – 307 m, width – 55 m, draught – 15.5 m 

Vyborg: During daylight time: length – 135 m, draught – 6.5 m 

During dusk time: length 125 m with draught 6.0 m or length 105 m with draught 6.2 m 

Vysock: length – 200 m, draught – 9.3 m 

Ust-Luga: length – 160.7 m, draught – 12.2 m 

In the river: length – 115 m, draught – 3.5 m 

The Saimaa Channel: length – 88 m, beam – 11.8 m, draught – 4.35 m, height of 

masts from the water level – 24.5 m 

In 2006 Primorsk port had the biggest turnover on the Baltic Sea 

struction of the Main Fairway from Kronstadt 

up to the closed part of the channel 

which currently only services one-way traffic 

of large-capacity ships. 

The general length of the fairway from the 

St. Petersburg Sea Buoy up to the internal water 

area of the port is 55 km (29, 6 miles). The 

declared width of the fairway in its opened part 

is 100 meters. On some sites of the opened part 

of the St. Petersburg sea channel, the width 

reaches 140 meters. The width of the enclosed 

Fairway (the part protected by dams) and in 

the internal water area of the port is between 

80-100 meters. The declared draft of the ships 

on the fairway is 11 meters. 

The current reconstruction of the waterway 

is in 3 stages: 

1. A deepening of the waterway for ships 

with a draught up to 12.5 m (2006-2008) 

2. A deepening of the waterway for ships 

with a draught up to 13 m (2008-2010), 

expansion of the channel to 140 meters. 

3. The opening of, and in parallel to the main 

fairway, a new Fairway for the movement 

of vessels (basically river) with a draught of 

5-5.5 meters. 

Another task is the construction of a channel 

to the sea-passenger terminal on the Vasilevsky 

island (Morskoy Facade) for passenger ferries 

and liners with a length of more than 200 m. St. 

Petersburg Maritime Seaport Administration 

also plans the development of a controlling system 

for the movement of ships and an introduction 

of new systems of posting to guarantee the 

safety of navigation in the Port of St. Petersburg. 

based on a presentation by Yury Orlov, 

Deputy Head 

How did it start? 

Tsar Peter I (1672-1725) was the founder 

of the city of St. Petersburg at the 

mouth of the river Neva. It was possible 

after he won the war with Sweden 

thereby gaining Russian access to the 

Baltic Sea coast. The city was founded 

in 1703 and only a few months later, 

the Tsar gave the decree to start building 

a seaport. 

The port was located in Kronstadt on 

the Kotlin Island 27 miles from the city. 

In 1874 an engineer and businessman, 

Nikolay Putilov started working on the 

project called Morskoy Canal – a sea 

channel connecting Kronstadt with 

St. Petersburg. Due to some intrigues, 

financing from the state treasury was 

stopped so Putilov had to invest his private 

money to go on with the construction 

of the sea channel. This project 

exhausted the business of Putilov. He 

went bankrupt and died in poverty. The 

first berth in the Port of St. Petersburg 

was opened on May 15 th 1885. 


What’s new in the ports? 

During 2006, a total of 6.2 million tons of bulk 

was handled via the Copenhagen Malmö Port. 

Various commodities, VGO, Jet-fuel, Chemicals, 

Gasoline for the domestic market and other 

Petrochemical products passed via the two 

terminals – Prøvestenen in Copenhagen and 

Olje Hamnen in Malmö. CMP has invested EUR 

9.5 million in upgrading the two terminals. The 

quays at Olje Hamnen in Malmö have been 

renovated and upgraded. The Port’s fairway is 

being widened, making access easier and enabling 

even larger vessels to call. Existing quays 

at Prøvestenen have been renovated. In January 

a large upgrade of quay capacity was commenced. 

A new pier is under construction that 

will supplement the existing Ocean Pier. 

The Port of Turku has started work in the Pansio 

harbour area to considerably expand the 

car import areas. The quality will be improved 

by replacing the gravel surface with asphalt. In 

the train-ferry harbour, an area for 3,000 new 

cars will be asphalted. For better efficiency, the 

car areas will be marked with paint and suit- 

Denmark 

1. Aabenraa 

2. Aarhus 

3. Copenhagen/Malmö 

4. Fredericia 

5. Horsens 

6. Middelfart 

7. Naksø 

8. Nyborg 

9. Rønne 

Estonia 

10. Tallinn 

Finland 

11. Hamina 

12. Hanko 

13. Helsinki 

14. Kemi 

15. Kotka 

16. Naantali 

17. Oulu 

18. Rauma 

19. Turku 

20. Vaasa 

Germany 

21. H-E Rostock 

22. Lübeck 

23. Seehaven Rostock 

24. Stralsund 

25. Wismar 

BALTIC PORTS ORGANIZATION 

Secretariat Office – Actia Forum Ltd. 

ul. Pułaskiego 8, 81-368 Gdynia, POLAND, ph.: +48 58 627 24 67, fax: +48 58 627 24 27 

e-mail: bpo.office@actiaforum.pl, bpo.gs@actiaforum.pl, http://www.bpoports.com 


1 

2 

4 5 

6 

22 

8 

7 

37 

23 

21 

25 

able facilities will be reserved for car assembly 

and truck loading and unloading. The work will 

be carried out by the autumn of 2007. 

The Premier of the Federal German State of 

Schleswig-Holstein, Peter Harry Carstensen, 

has formally opened Kiel’s new Ostseekai 

Cruise Shipping Terminal. Dr Dirk Claus, terminal 

owner and MD of the Port of Kiel (SEE- 

HAFEN KIEL GmbH & Co. KG) said at the inauguration 

ceremony that it was “a great day for 

the Port of Kiel. The new passenger terminal 

means we are now very well equipped for the 

future and will continue to cement our position 

as Germany’s leading cruise shipping port”, he 

said. Claus added: “the new terminal is one of 

the most efficient of its kind in the whole of 

northern Europe. We have here laid down new 

benchmarks for handling quality”. The star 

guest at the inauguration was AIDA Cruises’ 

flagship AIDAdiva. 

Finland’s first logistics centre for multimodal 

traffic is completed. The new logistics centre in 

the Ovako area was partly in use already early 

March. The centre with a floor area of 22,000m 2 

40 

38 

36 

49 

3 

9 

24 

48 

33 

32 

44 

43 

42 

39 

41 

46 

45 

47 

31 

20 

30 

18 

19 

16 

12 

34 

26 

28 

29 

14 

17 

13 

27 

15 

10 

11 

was completed on April 1st and handed over 

to Schenker Cargo Oy. The inauguration of the 

logistics centre was celebrated on April17 th . 

The first three months of 2007 show an increase 

in the handling of intermodal units at the Port 

of Göteborg. Containers increased by 12 percent 

to 211,000 TEU, while ro/ro units reached 

175,000 units, also a 12 percent increase. The 

comparison is made against the first quarter 

of 2006. Cars were up four percent, to 84,000 

vehicles, between the two quarters. Oil was 

unchanged at 5.1 million tons which is on par 

with last year’s record-breaking level. 

During the first quarter of the current year, 

5,8 mln tons of cargoes were handled in the 

Freeport of Riga, which is 2,8% less than 

during the respective period of last year. 

The largest increase was at the general cargo 

sector, reaching a 9,8% increase compared 

to the previous year. The amounts of 

general cargos were 1,278,700 tons. At the 

same time, the largest decrease was at the 

bulk cargo sector – 7,6% less than in the 

first quarter of the previous year. 

35 

Latvia 

26. Port of Liepaja 

27. Riga 

28. Ventspils 

Lithuania 

29. Klaipėda 

Poland 

30. Gdańsk 

31. Gdynia 

32. Świnoujście 

33. Szczecin 

Russia 

34. Kaliningrad 

35. St. Petersburg 

Sweden 

36. Copenhagen/Malmö 

37. Göteborg 

38. Helsingborg 

39. Kalmar 

40. Karlshamn 

41. Karlskrona 

42. Mönsterås 

43. Norrköping 

44. Oxelösund 

45. Stockholm 

46. Södertälje 

47. Umeå 

48. Västerås 

49. Ystad

Far from Meantime at Greenwich! 

Greenwich Maritime Institute, part of the University of Greenwich, 

in association with ShipShape International is due to host 

its third Conference in June entitled 

Ports & Ferries: Partners in 21 st 

Century European Trade in its 

quest for value and innovation 

in the ferry industry. A distinguished 

panel of speakers from 

the passenger, freight transport 

and port sectors as well as the academic 

world will share their expertise on a range of 

issues which are currently presenting a serious 

challenge to maritime industries. 

Keynote speeches will be delivered by 

Dr Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister of Transport, 

Bob Goldfield, chief executive of Dover 

Harbour Board and another by Christopher 

Garnett, a member of the board of the Olympic 

Delivery Authority who will discuss 

service delivery for the 2012 Olympic Games. 

Garnett was a director of Sealink British Ferries, 

commercial director of Eurotunnel and, 

until recently, much acclaimed chief executive 

of Sea Containers-owned Great North 

Eastern Railway (GNER). 

The two day programme will also include 

papers by Neil Davidson, research director of 

Drewry Shipping Consultants, Bill Gibbons, 

managing director of the Passenger Shipping 

Association and Robin Wilkins, managing 

director of SeaFrance as well as a number of 

other distinguished personalities. 

Unlike other, more commercialised 

events, the Conference, entitled “Ports & Ferries 

Partners in 21 st Century European Trade” 

will provide a stimulating blend of academic 

analysis and commercial experience. 

Organisers of the event contend that 

the ferry and port industries within Europe 

face a number of challenges and opportunities. 

Not least of these will be environmental 

and security issues spanning these 

sometimes diverse sectors. In addition, the 

UK Government’s desire to achieve “Modern 

Ports” will be examined by the Conference, 

contrasting as this does with the differing 

approach found in mainland Europe. 

The Conference is said to be an absolute 

must for anyone involved in either industry, 

representing incredibly good value to those 

with a commercial or technical interest in 

the ferry and port sectors. It is also said to 

provide delegates with a unique networking 

opportunity in an amazingly beautiful setting 

that includes the famous Painted Hall 

and Chapel. Greenwich Observatory, the 

Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum 

are also within a few minutes’ walk. 

Conference organiser, Bill Moses has 

confirmed that demand for seats has been 

strong even though the programme content 

has only just been released. “I am confident 

that this, our first two-day event, will be 

more popular than ever. Unlike most conferences, 

we appeal to decision-makers within 

the respective industries, making the event 

more meaningful and interesting. Highlights 

such as a tour of the Painted Hall and Chapel 

of St Peter & St Paul are a tremendous bonus 

that stem from holding the Conference in 

such a unique setting. The Conference will 

be rounded off nicely with a fast ferry trip 

on the River Thames taking full advantage 

of the geography of Greenwich and GMI’s 

standing in the maritime sector.” 

Maritime 

This year’s Conference, which will be 

held on Wednesday and Thursday 13 & 14 

June 2007 has attracted sponsorship from 

industry leaders such as LR Fairplay, Drewry 

Shipping Consultants, EuroShip Services, 

Maritime Protection Solutions, Rodriquez 

Cantieri Navali SpA and SeaFrance. 

Delegate application forms can be obtained 

from the Conference Secretariat at: 

conferences@shipshapinternatina.com or by 

visiting www.shipshapeinternational.com. 

Further programme details can be 

obtained from: 

Bill Moses 

Professor Sarah Palmer 

Director – Greenwich Maritime Institute 

University of Greenwich 

Old Royal Naval College 

London 

SE10 9LS 

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8331 7688/7689 

Fax: +44 (0) 20 8331 7690 

http://www.gre.ac.uk/schools/gmi 

Laraine Soliman 

Director – ShipShape International 

Limited 

3a Nelson Road 

Greenwich 

London 

SE10 9LB 

Tel: +44 (0) 1622 862 362 

Fax: +44 (0) 1622 863 401 

www.shipshapeinernational.com 


Rapid Changes in the Thousand-Year-Old Port 

Gdańsk With a New Face 

Photo: DCT Gdańsk SA 

The Port of Gdańsk is changing. The scope of the transformation 

is putting a new face on the port that reflects the demands of customers 

and creators of the European transport policy. 

This is yet another time in the millennium 

history of the port when 

its location is proving advantageous. 

The central position on the 

southern coast of the Baltic Sea, 

which is a natural sea road connecting 

the developing countries quickly, good 

spatial conditions for development and excellent 

hydrographical and climatic conditions 

attract all those interested in the port market. 

Trends that have been forming the transport direction 

for specific cargos, changes in the trade 

structure of Poland and other Baltic countries 

as well as countries considering the potential 

hinterland of the Port of Gdańsk, have made us 

adopt a strategy that transforms Gdańsk from a 

general cargo port to a universal one. 

A clear impulse for the port’s development 

came with the accession of Poland to 

the European Union and the transport policy 

of the European Commission. The position 

of the Port was recognized by EU strategists, 

who decided that the Port of Gdańsk 

would become one of the key elements of the 


TransEuropean Corridor No. 6. The decision 

has had a major impact on our development 

strategy. It takes into account the necessary 

infrastructural investments and the transshipment 

potential as well as the communication 

of the port with its hinterland. 

DCT and the Northern Port 

The widespread development of containerization 

and container shipments by sea has 

had to be included in our plans. The growth 

rate of trading in the present Gdańsk Container 

Terminal, which is small compared to 

other container ports of today (an annual capacity 

of about 100,000 TEU), confirms the 

validity of this direction. A key investment 

in this area is the Deepwater Container Terminal, 

constructed by private investors. The 

launch of the terminal in June this year will 

change the position of the Port of Gdańsk 

on the Baltic container market. After the 

end of the second phase of construction, 

the terminal will have a trans-shipment ca- 

pacity of about 1,000,000 TEU and will be 

the largest Polish container terminal. It will 

stand out above other terminals due to its 

capacity to serve the largest container ships 

that may enter the Baltic Sea, the so-called 

post-panamaxes. Considering the prospects 

of the economic development of the region 

and the trends in the container market, we 

think that this will not be the final container 

trans-shipment capacity in our port. 

Wherever there is container trade on a 

large scale, logistics services are in demand. 

The Port of Gdańsk is taking this fact into 

consideration. Back-up facilities of DCT will 

include a large distribution-logistics centre 

on an area of 140 ha. Partners involved in 

the development of the centre include: the 

Community of Gdańsk, Port of Gdańsk Authority 

SA, DCT Logistic (Hub at Gdańsk) 

Ltd. and the Pomeranian Special Economic 

Zone Ltd. 

DCT and the distribution-logistics centre 

are located in the area of the so-called 

Northern Port, where modern specialist 

bases operate for the trans-shipment of oil 

and oil products as well as coal and liquefied 

gas (LPG). The area has excellent development 

prospects and it is being adapted for 

new specialist trans-shipment bases.

120 hectares to be developed. 

In the Internal Port (located along one 

of the estuaries of the Vistula River) investments 

are being executed to improve the 

universality of the port. The priorities in 

this area include four projects implemented 

with the Sectoral Operational Programme 

co-financed by the European Union. 

At present the communication system is being 

improved to connect the Industrial Quay and 

the development area of the port with the communication 

system of the eastern section of the 

port. As a result, direct access will be provided 

to the quay for trucks and heavy traffic will be 

removed from residential areas. Moreover, conditions 

will be created for the development of the 

120 hectares of the port development area. 

Access to the Duty Free Zone is being improved, 

too. The investments include the enhancement 

of the potential of the Duty Free 

Zone by the redevelopment of the quay, construction 

of a steel loading ramp, construction 

of a process road and manoeuvring-parking 

yards, as well as the rebuilding of the crossroads 

of Oliwska and Przemysłowa Streets. The venture 

will increase the number of vessel positions, 

extend the trans-shipment capacities in 

the ro-ro system and multi-modal transports. 

Wider Opening 

Another project concerns the development 

of the quay and road infrastructure of the Westerplatte 

Ferry Terminal. The implementation of the 

project is aimed at increasing its capacity and raising 

the safety of road traffic in the vicinity of the 

terminal and creating the potential for simultaneous 

service of three ro-ro vessels/ferries. The venture 

will contribute to activating the areas located 

in the eastern section of the port. 

Moreover, the navigation opening to the 

Internal Port is being modernized. The Port of 

Gdańsk Authority SA is a partner in the project 

implemented by the Maritime Office in Gdynia. 

The project involves the reconstruction of 

the Western Breakwater and the extension of 

the navigation opening from 72 m to 90 m. The 

aim of the investment is to provide a safe entry 

for vessels 250 m long, 36 m wide and with a 

10.6 m draught. The development and modernization 

projects implemented in the port coincide 

with the current trans-shipment trends. 

More cars and passengers 

The trans-shipment of personal cars is 

presently booming, including cars from the 

Far East imported by Russia and the Baltic 

States. Cars are partly trans-shipped and 

stored in the Duty Free Zone which gives 

additional benefits in the case of transit to 

non-EU countries. In 2006 the trans-shipment 

of personal cars amounted to about 

77 thousand and in 2007, this figure should 

rise to 120 thousand. 

In the past several years, the number of 

passenger vessels calling at Gdańsk has been 

growing. This year the number will almost 

double compared to 2006. 

The dynamic growth of the port requires 

the development of the infrastructure 

access to the hinterland. The key investment 

in this regards is the so-called 

Sucharski Route. Elements of this project 

include: a tunnel under the port canal to 

connect the Internal Port with the Northern 

Port and a road system connecting the 

port areas with the suspended bridge over 

the Vistula River, thus providing access to 

the most important national roads towards 

Warsaw and Katowice. The construction 

of a railway bridge over the Vistula will be 

fundamental for this venture. 

The new face of the port is more and more 

visible, and the pace of changes is getting faster. 

Ryszard Mazur 


Maritime 

The dry freight and tanker market 

Prepared by Polfracht 

Dry Cargo Market Report, March-April 2007 

The dry bulk market continued its positive trend which seems to 

be unstoppable. Not everyone shares the euphoria of the current stratospheric 

freight rate with all-time records being broken. The continued 

concerns regarding the future of oversupply problems and potentially a 

slower growth in China, have not detracted owners from ordering new 

vessels. The world’s shipyards’ order books rose by 63% from 63.9 mdwt 

in March 2006 to 99.4 mdwt in March 2007. 

The very strong market is best reflected by the Baltic Freight Indexes 

which in comparison with February 2007 rose, in the case of the Baltic 

Dry Index from 4,398 to 5,754 in April, the Baltic Capesize Index from 

6,320 to 8,363 and the Baltic Panamax Index from to 4,245 to 5,390. 

Average monthly freight indexes and rates during the February- 

April 2007 period: 

a) freight Indices (points) II`07 III`07 IV`07 

Baltic Dry Index (BDI) 4,398 5,123 5,754 

Baltic Capesize Index (BCI) 6,320 7,237 8,363 

Baltic Panamax Index (BPI) 4,245 4,989 5,390 

Baltic Handymax Index (BSI) 2,807 3,290 3,691 

b) freight rates (in USD/mt) II`07 III`07 IV`07 

110,000 mts coal, 

Hampton Roads – Rotterdam 

140,000 mts coal, 

Richards Bay – Rotterdam 

140,000 mts iron ore, 

Narvik – Rotterdam 

150,000 mts iron ore, 

Tubarao – Rotterdam 


24.50 26.07 27.18 

22.61 23.49 26.92 

8.55 10.50 11.25 

22.25 25.44 27.79 

Freight market trends during the February-April 2007 period, 

as indicated by average daily time charter rates (in USD per 

day), reported on specific trading routes: 

cape (170,000 dwt) 

II`07 III`07 IV`07 

Atlantic round voyages 80,800 96,300 105,400 

Continent – Far East 93,400 107,300 117,100 

Far East – Continent 54,100 59,400 71,000 

Pacific round voyages 65,200 74,500 94,900 

Panamax (74,000 dwt) 

II`07 III`07 IV`07 





Handysize (45,000 dwt) 





Cape: 

The rates for Capesize tonnage were very strong during the March-April 

period. Most trades now stand at an all-time high. This was a very active period, 

both in spot and the long period market, especially in Pacific trade. A lack 

of proper tonnage was caused by the congestion in Australia which reached 

its worst level in 30 years, with 119 vessels waiting to load coal and iron ore 

there. Including congestion in other parts of the world, probably about 10% 

of the existing dry cargo fleet is currently stuck in ports. The T/C value for this 

size of tonnage increased by over 30% compared to the beginning of 2007. 

The Charterers, expecting a high market in the future, concluded several 

short and long period fixtures. The average 4 T/C routes increased from USD 

93,000 to USD 105,000 daily last month. A 175,000 DWAT vessel, newbuilding 

was chartered at USD 57,500 daily for a 3-years time-charter with delivery 

ex-yard in September 2007 and a similar vessel at USD 52,500 for 4+1 years 

time-charter for delivery ex-yard in November 2007. 

Panamax: 

The Panamax market was very firm and active during the March–April 

period. The commentators used to say that the market is “on fire”. The average 

4 T/C routes increased from USD 36,804 to USD 47,100 daily. A strong 

increase in rates both in the Pacific and Atlantic markets was noticed with 

the tendency going further up. The Atlantic market was fairly stable and 

firm reaching USD 55,000 daily for voyage T/C. Short /medium periods 

were done in the range of USD 47,000-USD 50,000. In the Pacific, period 

activity continued to dominate with rates still rising. One / two- / three- / 

five-year deals were concluded at USD 43,000 / 38,000/30,000/ 28,000 daily, 

respectfully. For Pacific round trip T/C rates stood at around low/mid 40’. 

Handy: 

It looks like there is no limit for rate improvements in this sector, too. The 

average value of 5 T/C routes jumped from USD 36,481 to USD 41,454. The 

Atlantic/Continent route paid USD 60,000 daily in April, comparing to USD 

50,000 in March. It has been another stormy month in the Pacific where the 

T/C rates reached USD 58/59,000 daily. Tonnage for the Baltic-Continent trade 

was fixed at USD 26-32,000 daily. There was a continuous demand for the periods. 

In March one-year employment was agreed at USD 31/33,000 daily and in 

April 39,000 daily. A two-year period is worth USD 32,000 daily now. 

Tanker Market Report, March-April 2007 

March brought crude oil prices to nearly a six-month high. One of the 

factors which greatly contributed to this was the tense situation in the Middle 

Eastern Gulf area, caused by gossip mentioning imminent US interven-

tion in Iran in view of the latter going forward with its nuclear 

programme. Last, but not least was the detention of 15 British 

military personnel by the Iranians on charges of trespassing in 

Iranian territorial waters. By the end of the month, prices rose 

above USD 67.00 per bbl (Brent). This trend, fuelled by news 

of low oil product stocks in USA, continued well into the next 

month and USD 68.70 was reported on the 16 th of April. The 

market eased by the end of the month with a final quote of 

USD 67.05 per bbl (prices as per Lloyd’s List). 

VLCC: 

In March, the Middle Eastern Gulf market remained quite 

active for most of the time. The rates increased during the first 

three weeks reaching WS 100/110 for double hull tonnage to 

the Far East destinations and WS 77.5 for the West. The last 

couple of days brought a slowdown and consequently a drop 

in rates – down to WS 95 and WS 75, respectively. 

In West Africa the rates remained at a stable level of 

about WS 95 (to USG) practically throughout entire period. 

In the Middle Eastern Gulf April proved, for most 

of the time, to be a continuation of the downward drive 

which started in the last days of March. Within the first 

three weeks, the rates to Japan dropped from WS 87.5 to 

WS 60 and to West WS 70 to WS 45. The end of the month 

brought some increase in activity which resulted in improved 

freights of about WS 62.5 and WS 50, respectively. 

The West African market behaved in the same manner, 

experiencing falling rates – from just above WS 90, down to 

WS 65, followed by a rise to WS 72.5 within the last week. 

SUEZMAX: 

In the beginning of March, the rates from West Africa 

stayed slightly above the WS 100 level and rose slowly during 

the first half. This was followed by a dramatic leap within 

the second half of the month, to WS 130 and subsequently to 

WS 165. A record WS 197.5 was reported in the last days of 

March for cargo to Portugal. 

Extremely slow trading kept the Black Sea and Mediterranean 

rates at an extremely poor level of about WS 90 

and remained less than exciting during the first half of the 

month. The tide turned in the second half, with the market 

shooting up to WS 255. The two factors that contributed 

towards this situation were the strikes in Fos and serious 

delays in another major port – Trieste. 

The end of the first week of April brought West African 

rates down to WS 130/140 which was followed by a further 

softening – to WS 115/120. The market rebounded during the 

last days of the month, reaching a WS 150 level. 

The end of the strike in Fos was one of the causes which contributed 

towards erosion on rates in the Mediterranean and Black 

Sea – WS 110/120 only. An increased activity at the end of the 

month caused the market to shoot up to about WS 180/200. 

AFRAMAX: 

Both the “cross UKC”, 80,000 mt size and the Baltic/ 

UKC 100,000 mt markets started in March at a WS 100 

level; it was only in the middle of the month that the rates 

jumped to WS 165. For a brief moment, a WS 200 was 

breached, however, the end of March brought a slowdown 

and a drop to about WS 155/160. 

It was a different story in the Mediterranean and Black 

Seas although only WS 90/100 was the starting point, an 

increase in activity and a factor mentioned in the case of 

the Suezmaxes, caused rates to rise week by week to finally 

reach a very impressive WS 270. 

Maritime 

Average monthly freight rates (in Worldscale points), April 2005/2006 and 

February-April 2007: 

VLCC 

IV’05 IV’06 II’07 III’07 IV’07 

Persian Gulf-Europe 79 57 48 70 54 

Persian Gulf-Japan 90 63 68 96 68 

Suezmax 

West Africa-US Gulf 133 121 129 116 129 

Aframax 

North Africa – 

European Mediterranean 

148 141 166 145 157 

UK-Continent 134 95 176 140 144 

In April the Baltic and the North Sea WS 130/135 was initially paid for 80,000 mt 

“cross UKC”and WS 115/130 for 100,000 mt Baltic/UKC. After undergoing numerous 

fluctuations, the month closed at about WS 130 and 120, respectively. 

As was in the case of the Suezmaxes, the Aframax market in the Black Sea and Mediterranean 

experienced a slump and at the beginning of the month, rates dropped to WS 

105/112.5 only. This was followed by a rebound to WS 170/190, however, an oversupply 

of tonnage in the second half of April lead to a gradual fall and finally to WS 140. 

Baltic Dry Index in the years 2005, 2006 and the first two months of 2007 

80,000 tonnes dirty (Aframax) 

The Baltic Sea/The North Sea in 2006 and the first two months of 2007 


Maritime 

Ballast water danger in the Baltic Sea 

Beware of NIS 

It is estimated that cargo vessels annually transport up to 

7 billion tons of ballast water worldwide and even 4,000 species 

can be transferred between continents each day in so-called “ballast 

water conveyor belts”. 

Most of the non-indigenous 

species (NIS) dramatically 

changing the local marine 

ecosystems originate from 

ship ballast water introductions. 

Unfortunately, 

the role of shipping as a means of their introduction 

is constantly increasing parallel to the 

increase of the average ships’ cargo volume and 

speed resulting in better survival conditions 

for NIS in ballast water tanks. Therefore on a 

global scale, International Maritime Organisation 

(IMO) has adopted the International Convention 

for the Control and Management of 

Ship’s Ballast Water and Sediments to prevent, 

minimize and ultimately eliminate, the transfer 

of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens 

through control and management of the ships’ 

ballast water and sediments. 

Particular Sensitive Sea 

Since April 2004, the Baltic Sea has 

been classified by IMO as a Particular Sensitive 

Sea Area (PSSA). This is not a com- 


monly awarded category, as currently there 

are only 10 more such areas in the world, 

including among others: the Great Barrier 

Reef outside of Australia, the Florida Keys/ 

Tortugas in USA and the Galapagos Archipelago. 

Every PSSA needs special protection 

because of its significance for recognized ecological, 

socio-economical or scientific reasons 

as well as its vulnerability to damage by 

international maritime activities. The Baltic 

Sea is unique due to its following features: 

• closed – requiring approximately 40 for 

water exchange 

• young – less than 10,000 years old 

• mixed and cold – containing brackish 

water of 5ºC average temperature with 

thermocline and halocline 

• poor – with only 70-80 species 

On the other hand, the Baltic PSSA is intensively 

populated with 85 million people 

living around and, what is maybe influencing 

its ecosystem even more, is that it serves 

as one of the most intensely trafficked shipping 

areas in the world. The shipping intensity 

can be well described by the num- 

bers obtained thanks to the introduction of 

the Automatic Identification System (AIS). 

In 2005 – the first year, when according to 

the decisions of the IMO, all ships above 

300 tons should carry an AIS transponder: 

• 54 thousand AIS equipped vessels 

entered/left the Baltic; 

• 40 thousand entered/left the Gulf 

of Finland; 

• 1,800 AIS equipped vessels navigated in 

the Baltic at any moment. 

There is no doubt that since the Baltic Sea 

virtually became an internal water within the 

European Union, the entire region has been 

developing rapidly. Another distinct example 

serving as the proof of changes faced by the 

Baltic Sea is the volume of transport via oil terminals 

in the Gulf of Finland which in 2004 

rose to approximaterly106 million tons. The estimates 

concerning the future development say 

about 190 million tons in 2010. The increase in 

the amount of oil transportation means an automatically 

increased amount of ballast water 

changed in the Baltic Sea ports. The introduction 

of invasive species with the ballast waters 

of ships is among the most serious environmental 

issues of the Baltic Sea. Only in 2000 

more than 14,000 oil tankers passed through 

the straits between Denmark and Sweden discharging 

roughly an estimated 30 millions tons 

of ballast water in Baltic ports. 

Favourable conditions for NIS 

Among the different ways of NIS transfer, 

which include: intentional introductions, 

aquaculture and fishing activities, public and 

hobby aquaria leakages, release from research 

laboratories, transport of sand and gravel and 

the removal of natural barriers by opening canals 

connecting ocean or river systems, still 

the transfer of shipping ballast water (very 

often tens of thousands of tons per ship), the 

ships’ tank sediments (up to 50 cm high), hull, 

anchor and anchor chain fouling seems to be 

the most effective and potentially dangerous. 

The Baltic Sea due to its mentioned above 

characteristic features, creates favourable conditions 

for NIS. Therefore, already more than 

100 non-native species have been recorded in 

the Baltic Sea and almost 70 of them are able to 

establish reproducing populations. The Baltic 

has an impressive and long history of humancaused 

invasions. The first species recognized

as a non-native was the barnacle Balanus improvisus 

found in 1844 in the area of the Vistula 

lagoon. Even the brackish conditions did 

not protect the Baltic from introductions of 

species. Most of the important harbours in the 

world and especially in Europe are located at 

river mouths where the salinity of the water 

is comparable to that characterising the water 

surrounding the 500 ports on the Baltic coast. 

Ballast water loaded at these sites and then discharged 

somewhere in the Baltic Sea matches 

local salinity conditions. The breakdown of 

large-scale geographical barriers by ship traffic 

causes that the fauna and flora of the Baltic 

are exposed as never before in history to other 

brackish water species of the entire world. Most 

of these invasive species originate from the 

North American or Ponto-Caspian regions. 

Comb jelly invader 

The NIS induce considerable changes in 

the marine ecosystems. They may also totally 

alter the economic use of the sea or even sometimes 

threaten human health. Quite recently, 

the occurrence of the Mnemiopsis leidyi, a 

North American comb jelly, the most harmful 

of all marine alien invaders, was recorded 

in the Baltic Sea. Mnemiopsis appeared in 

the Black Sea in the early 1980s and with a 

massive population explosion in the past few 

years has reached biomasses up to 1.5 kg/m 2 

substantially contributing to the deep crisis 

of the Black Sea’s fishery and losses estimated 

in hundreds of millions of USD. Mnemiopsis 

later spread from the Black Sea into the Sea 

of Azov, the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea, 

the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea 

(in 1999), again with severe consequences 

for fisheries, especially in the Caspian Sea. In 

October 2006, Mnemiopsis was found in high 

numbers in North Western European waters 

and as well as in Skagerrak. 

Today around 20 more of NIS occurring in 

the Baltic Sea are classified as harmful according 

to the impacts they cause in this area. Additionally, 

it has to be emphasized that no species 

are yet known to become extinct in the Baltic 

Sea currently or in historical times, whereas 

immigration effectively continues, enhanced 

by the human-caused introduction of species. 

The requirements cannot be met 

Protection against ballast water introducing 

alien species is one of the most significant 

priorities of the Helsinki Convention on the 

Protection of the Marine Environment of the 

Baltic Sea Area (HELCOM) in force since January 

2000. One of the aims of HELCOM is to establish 

and support international cooperation 

for the purpose of effective implementation of 

the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention 

(BWMC). Presently, the BWMC is open 

for ratification, and if properly implemented, 

it will minimize the risk of further shipping 

mediated biological invasions, however, the 

implementation of the Convention in the Baltic 

Sea area due to its unique PSSA character 

requires a considerable amount of scientific 

research and administrative decisions. It has 

to be noted that because of geographical characteristics 

of the Baltic Sea (a mean depth of 

55 metres; all areas deeper than 200 m are located 

less than 50 nautical miles to the nearest 

land), the requirements of the BMWC (Regulation 

B-4) for conducting ballast water exchange 

cannot be met. According to Regulation 

B-4, the evaluation of the suitable areas in the 

Baltic where a ship may conduct ballast water 

exchange must be made by the port states. Ballast 

water exchange may prevent the spread of 

freshwater invasive alien species but should not 

be considered as the only effective measure for 

managing ballast water within the Baltic Sea. 

A common information system is 

needed 

Different ballast water management options 

are discussed and evaluated. As there still does 

not exist any approved ballast water treatment 

systems, the following ways are considered: 

• land-based port reception facilities for 

untreated ballast water. 

• oceanic ballast water exchange for vessels 

that pass through waters that are at least 

200 nm) from the coast and are at least 

200 nm in depth. 

Maritime 

• the identification of ballast water exchange 

zones, i.e., zones where it is believed that 

the exchange of untreated ballast water 

causes at best no harm although these are 

not at least 200 nm from the coast and are 

at least 200 nm in depth. 

• a risk assessment based management approach 

to identify high-risk vessels and/ 

or high risk donor ports or port regions. 

HELCOM emphasizes the need for a 

common information system for the Baltic 

Sea States supporting the implementation of 

the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention. 

The system should support risk 

assessment activities and decision-making 

in the Baltic Sea ports but the action by an 

individual country would be of limited effectiveness. 

The IMO convention offers the 

possibility to elaborate a regional strategic 

action plan. Hopefully, this will enhance the 

co-operation among the Baltic countries. 

Leszek Wilczyński 

CTO S.A. Gdańsk 


THE LEADING TRADE FAIR FOR LOGISTICS, TELEMATICS, AND TRANSPORT 

JUNE 12 TO 15, 2007 

MUNICH TRADE FAIR CENTRE 

Contact: Messe München GmbH · Messegelände · D-81823 München 

Tel. (+49 89) 9 49-113 68 · Fax (+49 89) 9 49-113 69 

info@transportlogistic.de 

www.transportlogistic.de

The 51 st edition of The Tall Ships’ Races will take place at the beginning of July 2007 

Tall Ships on the Baltic Sea 

At the beginning of July this year, the 51 st edition of The Tall Ships’ 

Races will take place on the Baltic Sea. It is one of the world’s biggest 

and oldest sailing events. The regatta will begin in Aarhus, 

Denmark and will terminate in Szczecin, Poland. 

The history of the regatta dates back 

to the beginning of the 1950s. 

The idea to save the sailing ships 

that once reigned supreme on the 

world seas from oblivion and were 

afterwards displaced by steam 

and motor vessels originated in Great Britain at 

exactly that time. In 1956, the first regatta was 

organized under the auspices of the Duke of Edinburgh. 

Twenty-one sailing ships raced from 

Torbay, England, to Lisbon, Portugal. In the following 

year, the organizing committee assumed 

the name of the Sail Training Association. It was 

in such a way that the idea of “sail training” – the 

education of young people onboard the ships, 

during regattas and rallies – was born. 

In 1972, the producer of Scotch whisky 

which utilizes the image of “Cutty Sark”, the 

most beautiful and the fastest tea clipper in 

the 19 th century, became the titular sponsor of 

the event. At that time, the race was renamed 

“the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Races”. In the 

spring of 2002, the organization of the event 

was taken over by another association: Sail 

Training International. Two years later, the 

regatta changed its name again to “The Tall 

Ships’ Races” while the Belgian city of Antwerp 

became the titular sponsor of the event. 

Irrespective of former experience in organizing 

the event, any port, independently of its size, 

can seek to have the right to organize “The Tall 

Ships’ Races”. The major criterion for the choice 

of the route and the hosting ports along its different 

stages is the attractiveness for the crews. 

Photo: M. Frycz 

This year “The Tall Ships’ Races” will be 

taking place exclusively on the Baltic Sea. 

The race will begin on July 5 th in the Danish 

Port of Aarhus. Three days later, the regatta 

participants will take part in a ten-day race 

that will terminate in the Port of Kotka, Finland. 

On July 21 st , the sailing ships will go on 

Maritime 

a so-called “sociable voyage” to Stockholm. 

A week later, another race will begin at the 

Port of Szczecin. A three-day lay time in 

these ports, between August 4 th and 7 th , will 

be the closing of the event. 

Over one hundred sailing ships will sail 

from Aarhus to Szczecin. Among them will 

be the British ship Leader (built in 1896!), the 

German Astarte (1903) and Alexander von 

Humboldt (1906), the world’s biggest Russianbuilt 

sailing ship – Sedov (1922), the Swedish 

Atene (1909) and the Norwegian Christian 

Radich (1937) that took part in the same regatta 

already half a century ago! 

In total, over 4,000 seamen will compete in 

four categories: A – 40 meter sailing ships or 

larger, B – sailing ships smaller than 40 meters, 

C – yachts without a spinnaker, D – yachts with 

a spinnaker. According to the regatta regulations, 

half of each crew must be seamen aged 

between 15 and 25. Exchanges of crews have 

been provided for in the regatta programme. 

It has been planned that every port will 

prepare an extensive programme of supplementary 

events such as: a parade of sailing 

ships, sailing ship fairs, street theatre performances, 

race participants marching through the 

city’s high street and the singing of sea songs. 

In Szczecin, an attempt at breaking the 

Guinness Book of Records will be made in 

a common performance of metalot dancing. 

This kind of dance is usually performed by 

seamen to the rhythm of Celtic music. “The 

Tall Ships’ Races” has always been an event 

that enjoyed a high level of popularity. It has 

been estimated that up to 300 to 400 thousand 

people come to see the sailing ships in 

Stockholm every day!!! 



Aviation 

Polish airports – the fastest increase in passenger numbers in the world 

Low-cost airlines and regional 

Airports in Poland are currently experiencing a very rapid growth 

with the fastest increase in passenger numbers in the world. 

However, Polish airports still suffer 

from underinvestment, 

inadequate infrastructure and 

limited capacity. The sector is 

expecting investments worth an 

estimated €1.2bn between 2007 and 2013 with 

credible plans to establish several new civil airports 

in Poland – says the report “Airports in 

Poland – a EUR 1.2bn business opportunity” 

published by the research company PMR.. 

The figures are impressive: In 2006 more 

than 15.3 million travellers visited Polish airports, 

over one third more than in 2005. In 

the same period, the average airport passenger 

traffic in Europe grew by some 7%. The Warsaw 

airport handled over a million passengers 

more in 2006 than in 2005, then comes Cracow 

with 784,000, ahead of Gdańsk (572,000), 

Wrocław (404,000), and Katowice (355,000). 

According to different forecasts, Polish 

airports will serve between 16.4 to 18 million 

passengers in 2007. The International 

Air Transport Association expects passen- 


ger traffic in Poland in the years 2005-2009 

to increase by more than 11% yearly – the 

highest growth rate projected for airport 

traffic anywhere in the world, from among 

countries that have more than 2 million 

persons travelling on air carriers each year. 

During the past two years the structure 

of air travel in Poland has changed visibly. 

Regional airports are catching up with the 

country’s main airport in Warsaw. In 2006 

they checked-in nearly two-thirds more 

passengers than in 2005, while at the same 

time, passenger traffic in the Warsaw airport 

rose by less than 15%. 

Poland’s regional airports owe their 

dynamic growth mostly to the low-cost 

carriers. During the three years, since Poland 

joined the EU, low-cost airlines have 

expanded rapidly. Last year, for the first 

time they served more passengers than the 

biggest traditional Polish air carrier – PLL 

LOT, and their further strong expansion for 

the next few years is still expected. The big- 

gest market share (approx. 2.1 million passengers 

served in 2006) belonged to Hungarian 

WizzAir. Irish Ryanair (1.6 million 

passengers in 2006) ranks second. 

In 2007 both carriers are going to increase 

the number of passengers they serve to 3 million 

and 2 million, respectively. To support further 

expansion, competition among airports 

and carriers is expected to intensify, leading to 

an estimated 10% drop in airport charges. 

That means that without investments in 

airport infrastructure, Polish airports will 

not be able to cope. Poland has an airport 

network density six times less than in more 

developed European countries. On average 

there is one civilian airport per almost 3.2 

million inhabitants in Poland; while in the 

EU15 this ratio stands at around 460,000 citizens 

per airport. In some regions of Poland, 

people must travel more than 200 km to get 

to the nearest civil airport. Given these statistics, 

there is no doubt about Poland’s need 

for several new airports handling passenger 

traffic. At the beginning of 2007, the Ministry 

of Transport prepared a programme 

for developing the national network of air-

airports on the way up 

Photo: Arpingstone/www.wikipedia.org 

ports and airport ground facilities. The programme 

envisages the creation of several 

new airports with priority given to the less 

developed regions of eastern Poland. 

Humidity is is going… going… 

Although the new airports are only in a 

planning phase, they have already begun to 

compete among each other. Within the next 

few months, the race for money and investors 

ABSORPOLE 

…is coming 

Keep your Container dry 

• Machinery, electronics 

• Automobile parts 

• Metal, sheets etc 

• Food, cans 

• Pharmaceuticals 

• Paper, wood 

• Glass, plastics 

• Garments 

• Leather 

ABSORTOP 

No Moisture Damage… 

Reduces humidity 

Prevents condensation damage 

Environmentally friendly Calcium-Chloride 

• Coffee, Cocoa, Tea 

• Seed, Corn 

• Nuts 

• Bulk freight 

• high stuffed goods 

Aviation 

will intensify. Ryanair has already declared its 

willingness to invest in an air base and wants 

to channel its money into the cheapest and the 

soonest-to-be-completed airports. At present 

the Modlin Airport (some 50 km from Warsaw) 

seems to be the most likely location for 

Ryanair’s hub – an investment estimated at 

€100m. In the first full year of operations (in 

2009), Modlin expects to handle a million 

passengers and by 2011, this figure should 

rise to 2 million passengers per year. 

Along with the expansion of airports 

and the construction of new terminals, 

other additional investments will also be 

carried out at the airports including the 

construction of hotels, parking spaces, 

railway links and improved road links 

from airports to nearby cities, logistics 

centres, and cargo hubs, which could be 

of key importance to factories that will be 

built in the nearby special economic zones. 

The services and retailing possibilities at 

airports are well understood: car rental, 

duty free sales, newsagents, bookshops, 

fast food, pubs, restaurants, other retailing, 

travel agents and others. 

PMR’s forecast of a €1.2bn business opportunity 

is conservative and well documented. 

If economic growth accelerates, as may 

well happen, the figure may even be higher. 

based on PMR report “Airports in Poland 

– a EUR 1.2bn business opportunity” 

Europe GmbH Tel. + 49 

www.absortech.de 

www.absortech.com 

TRANSPORT LOGISTIC MUNICH 2007 

HALL B5 · STAND NO. 124 

234 944 29 697 

Fax + 49 234 944 29 698 

info@absortech.de 


Container Trains from the Ports in Klaipėda and Kaliningrad to Odessa and Moscow 

From the Sea onto Tracks 

How to deal with the road infrastructure in Central and Eastern 

European countries which is far from perfect and impedes transport 

between sea ports and customers inland? 

The Port in Klaipėda has found an 

answer to the question in terms 

of using the railway. Two container 

trains, Viking and Mercury, 

carry trucks or multi-ton 

cargo containers on platformcars 

for hundreds and thousands kilometres 

between different countries. 

The first train is a joint venture among the 

Lithuanian (the operator of the train in Lithuania 

is LG Ekspedicija), Belarusian (Belarus republic-wide 

transport expedition enterprise 

Belintertrans) and the Ukrainian railways (the 

Ukrainian State Transport Service Centre Liski). 

The train goes from Klaipėda to Odessa and Illichevsk, 

two Ukrainian ports by the Black Sea. 

It provides, within a single offer, the dispatch of 

cargos to Turkey (Istanbul), Georgia (Batumi), 

Bulgaria (Warna), Greece (Piraeus) and the 

Caucasus. It is also possible to load and unload 

containers/trucks on intermediate stations in 

Lithuania (Paneriai), Belarus (Minsk-Kaliadichy) 

and the Ukraine (Kyiv-Liski). 

Viking carries both 20 and 40-feet containers 

and trucks with semi-trailers and trailers. 

In Klaipėda both loading and unloading 

of cargoes may take place in the port and the 

railway station. If required by customers, the 

operator may provide his own containers (for 

an additional fee), labour, storage of cargo, and 

even means of transport from the unloading 

site to the receiver (“door-to-door”). Since October 

2006, Viking has also been able to carry 

cargoes such as cigarettes and alcohol, however, 

a special excise tax is charged. There are also 

sleeping cars in the train available for drivers. 

Viking runs from Klaipėda on Tuesdays 

and returns on Fridays once a week. When demand 

is higher, three additional trains may be 

operated weekly. The route Klaipėda-Illichevsk 

(1,734 km) is covered in 53-59 hours depending 

on the season. Orders have to be submitted at 

Inland 

least five days before the departure. The Lithuanian 

government recognizes these trains as one 

of the priorities in the transport development 

programme in 2005-2025. 

Mercury provides similar services, however, 

it is a joint Lithuanian- Belarusian-Russian 

project. It has run since 2005 when a cooperation 

agreement was signed between the ports in Kaliningrad 

and Klaipėda. However for this train, 

the destination is not a sea port but the capital of 

Russia, Moscow. 

Mercury carries mostly 20, 40 and 45-feet 

containers. The train consists of two parts: one 

starts from the Russian port in Kaliningrad and 

the other in Klaipėda. They are connected into 

a single train at the junction station of Vaidotu. 

The farther route goes through Minsk in Belarus 

and the final stop is in Kuntsevo. The travel from 

Klaipėda to Moscow (1,335 km) takes 46 hours, 

while from Kaliningrad (1,288 km) 50 hours. 

Train operators guarantee that their containers 

are “safe, available and ecologically friendly”, 

while prices are very competitive compared to 

road transport and traditional cargo trains. 



A new name on the logistics trade fair map 

Logistex in Łódź 

Between 24-26 April 2007, the city of Łódź hosted its first edition 

of LOGISTEX – the Logistics, Warehousing and Transport Expo, 

dedicated to all areas of the logistics market and to suppliers of 

equipment and services for the sector. 

Łódź has apparently fancied Poznań 

for their LTS TRANSPORTA and the 

POLISH LOGISTICS CONGRESS, 

Kielce with the logistics LOGISTYKA 

and the aviation AIR SHOW, Gdańsk with the 

shipping BALTEXPO and the railway TRAKO, 

Warsaw and their INFRASTRUCTURE and 

Bydgoszcz with the 2006 initiated ITL (International 

Transport and Logistics Fair). Hence, 

a new international sector trade fair appeared 

on the Polish map conducted under the motto 

“integration of the logistics chain”. 

Quoting the Polish Chamber of Forwarding 

and Logistics President Marek Tarczyński, 

“It’s a good choice to hold such a new event in 

Łódź. The strategic importance of the region 

has considerably increased since Poland joined 

the European Union. The north-south and 

west-east transport routes forming a loop here 

provide a unique opportunity for the develop- 

POLZUG BTJ 184x122-rz 11.04.2007 14:26 Uhr Seite 1 

� 

ment of logistics services and for making this 

region a significant distribution centre”. 

The favourable location and industrial traditions 

of Łódź result in the region’s growing attractiveness 

for investors, also within the TLS sector. 

“This is now well being enhanced by this year’s 

European Union enlargement with Romania and 

Bulgaria as well as the liberalization of railway and 

postal services in Poland”, Tarczyński concludes. If 

we add the recent UEFA decision for Euro 2012 to 

take place in Poland-Ukraine, and the upcoming 

huge investments in roads, railways, airports and 

other public sites all over the country, the upward 

trend seems to offer countless new occasions for 

transport, logistics and storage space development 

in Poland. All this constitutes that Logistex is another 

good platform for your networking as well 

as getting acquainted with the latest technical and 

technological solutions on display. A good “just in 

time” start for the organizers, it seems. 

Fresh news and business messages towards 

the Baltic Sea region from Logistex 

exhibitors: 

• The road transport & distribution operator 

Raben Group promotes their wider range of 

services as a new company Raben & Liesenfeld, 

since 2007 offering also sea and air freight services 

delivered in joint-venture with the German 

Rohde & Liesenfeld. 

• Another road transport specialist, the German 

DLS – Land Und See Speditionsgesellschaft – is 

looking for reliable carriers operating on the directions 

of the Western EU countries – Poland 

– CIS (Russia and the former Soviet Republics). 

• Dachser GmbH & Co. KG – one of Europe’s leading 

logistics providers has opened a new central 

logistics platform in Bratislava, Slovakia. The centre 

offers daily connections through Slovakia, to 

Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. 

• The Belgian Transics NV, an on-board computer 

and fleet management solutions provider 

for trucking, strengthens its European position 

with the acquisition of DIS (Delta Industrie 

Service), and thus broadening its product range 

with solutions for the readout, storage and 

processing of digital tacho data. Transics is now 

also looking for new representatives in Lithuania, 

Latvia and Estonia. 

• Toshiba Tec Corporation presented its B-SA 

barcode label printers, universal to use in retail 

distribution and logistic centres, ports, terminals 

and by logistics operators. 

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Inland 

Plans for an intermodal terminal and a logistic technological platform 

Kaunas is searching for 

Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest city, is planning to create an 

intermodal terminal-cluster seeking to effectively take advantage 

of and utilise what the region offers: the railway node, the 

airport, the river port, the seaport of Klaipėda, Via Baltica, the 

cross-section of two trans-European transport corridors and the 

future Rail Baltica. 

With Lithuania’s name 

commemorating and 

celebrating its upcoming 

1,000th anniversary, 

Kaunas set an objective to 

become the city of innovations, 

new ideas, modern transport networks, a 

high level of cultural life, sports, and leisure. 

“The main task of ours is to make Kaunas convenient 

as an investment city,” says the city’s mayor 

Arvydas Garbaravicius. “At present we are building 

an exit road to the city’s bypass, which should 

eliminate traffic jams in the old town and city 

centre. We allocated 15 million litas (ca. 4,345,000 

euro) for the renovation of cultural objects only.” 

One of the objectives by implementing the 

millennium program is the development of 

the Kaunas international airport. According to 

mayor Garbavicious Kaunas, the airport has 

the best runway in Lithuania. Due to its good 

geographical location and favourable air conditions, 

it records the least amount of “flightless” 

days during a year. 

“When low-cost flights were launched, the 

world’s attention was directed towards Lithuania, 

the interest in the Kaunas airport, only 

among Internet users, already amounts to 10 

million visits,” says the mayor. 

Kaunas as a river-sea port 

Kaunas is situated 220 km away from the 

seaport in Klaipėda. Wishing to preserve the 

shipping on the Nemunas river, it is necessary 

to create conditions in which “sea-river” ships 

can call at Kaunas. For achieving this goal, it 

is necessary to solve the issue of the Nemunas 

watercourse depth. Currently, in Nemunas 

section of the Kaunas–Jurbarkas, the guaranteed 

depth is only 1.2 m and from Jurbarkas 

till Klaipėda – 1.5 m. Therefore, along 

the whole route barges can transport cargo 

weighing only 500 tons. If the depth along the 

whole route were 1.5 m, it would allow transporting 

cargo weighing up to 750 tons. 


Wishing to secure the proper depth for the 

navigation of “sea-river” types of ships on the 

whole, the Nemunas watercourse from Kaunas 

to Klaipėda, five to six water level controllers 

should be built. These level controllers operate 

on the principle of “water bubble”. Water bubble 

is stretched across the river, which under 

different conditions can be lowered (when the 

river is flooded) or be more “inflated” (when 

the river’s water level is low). Such water level 

controllers would be installed together with 

fish ladders and shipping sluices, besides, hydroelectric 

power stations can also be equipped 

nearby. Thus, this water level controller project 

is a pay-off in itself. Their construction is expensive, 

however, this way is much more effective 

than allocating money for cleaning the 

watercourse annually by dredgers. 

The performed outlook for cargo and passenger 

flows for near, medium, and long-term 

perspectives showed that the modernized inland 

waterway E-41 along the Nemunas and 

the Curonian Lagoon, after increasing the 

depth of its fairway and renovating the ports 

and quays, could be used effectively. Additionally, 

the conditions for integration of this way 

to the Klaipėda Seaport are favourable. But, 

for the modernization of the inland waterway 

E-41, it is necessary to perform a mandatory 

environmental impact evaluation. 

From Klaipėda to Vilnius – in an hour 

On October 1, 2003, by a decision of the 

EU Commission, the European Standard Railway 

Project (ESR) No. 27 – Rail Baltica was 

approved. It will be going through Lithuania, 

Latvia, Estonia, and Poland and will be built in 

stages: Warsaw–Kaunas (2010), Kaunas–Riga 

(2014), and Riga–Tallinn (2016). 

Kaunas also raises the idea of implementing 

a project for a speed train in Lithuania. 

“Different industry, science, business clusters, 

logistics networks are developing rapidly; 

cities, regions are uniting in order to imple- 

ment projects of different kinds,” a member 

of the Kaunas city municipality council, Gediminas 

Petrauskas, says. “A one hour distance 

is the main criteria for successful development 

for any of these clusters. We want to raise the 

idea of a train which could run at a speed exceeding 

300 km/h. in such a way that Vilnius, 

Kaunas, and Klaipėda could develop common 

projects much more successfully.” 

According to Mr. Petrauskas, last year a 

decision was accepted to implement a fast 

train project between Berlin-Warsaw-Minsk- 

Moscow in the near future, which Lithuania 

could successfully join. 

“Of course, the trans-European railway 

project Rail Baltica is under implementation 

already, but it is not a fast train. First and foremost, 

we suggest uniting the three biggest cities 

in Lithuania by a fast train. By preliminary calculations, 

the inhabitants burn a huge amount 

of fuel, increase automobile and tire wear and 

tear, waste time, so, this project would payoff. 

Besides, in this way we would implement an 

initiative, very encouraged in Europe, to “vacate” 

roads, a step towards ecological transport 

would be made”, says Mr. Petrauskas. 

The railway route needs a terminal 

After building Rail Baltica, the Kaunas region 

has an exceptional opportunity to use the 

present Palemonas railway unit, the system of 

railway ports of Naujasodis, Palemonas, Petrasiunai, 

the crossing of two trans-European corridors 

(I, IX), Kaunas railway station, Kaunas airport, 

and the Nemunas river port. When logistic ties 

are formed, Kaunas will become an intermodal 

terminal of European significance – a land port 

uniting Eastern and Western economic spaces 

for passenger and cargo transportation. 

To implement these objectives, the public 

enterprise “Kaunas Intermodal Terminal” 

(KIT) will be established. The goal of the 

Kaunas Intermodal Terminal is to develop a 

complex intermodal transport infrastructure 

centre in the Kaunas region and city for cargo 

flows in the transport corridors of international 

and local significance, and to create favourable 

conditions for business growth. KIT will 

render not only logistic, loading and unloading 

services, but will also form shuttle trains in 

the directions of West-East, and South-North. 

Currently, detailed plans for the territories, 

roads, railroads and other infrastructure for

its image 

new objects are being prepared, the projects 

for the development of existing objects, their 

connection with each other and the future European 

standard railway, international highways 

and city streets. Existing and projected 

KIT objects will meet service requirements for 

transportation by different sorts of transport 

and intermodal transportation units (ITU). 

It is planned to carry out a study entitled 

“Connections of Kaunas Intermodal Terminal 

objects with the European Standard Railway 

(ESR)” which will evaluate the influence of the 

ESR and KIT objects’ connection to the development 

of Kaunas city and its region and set 

conditions and requirements of intermodality 

to all KIT objects for the transportations of different 

sorts of transport and ITU service. 

RailWorld is interested in a terminal 

The implementation of this project would 

require 1.5 million litas. Local authorities 

hope to get financing for this project from 

EU Structural Funds. Other sources are being 

searched, too. At the beginning of the 

year, Kaunas’s mayor Arvydas Garbaravicius 

discussed the Rail Baltica and Kaunas 

Intermodal Terminal construction issues 

with Graham Percy and Rimas Kaikaris, the 

authorized representatives of RailWorld. 

RailWorld is one the biggest companies in 

the world that invests in railway networks in 

USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and is 

supported by the biggest banks in the world. 

The representatives of RailWorld, owning 

some of Poland’s railways and 66 percent 

of Estonian railway shares, confirmed 

their interest in the Rail Baltica project. The 

company has presented its proposals to the 

Ministry of Communications on railway 

construction, focusing on the importance 

of an intermodal terminal. According to 

Mr. Percy, Kaunas Intermodal Terminal is 

an integral part of the Rail Baltica route. 

Inland 

A logistic technological platform for 

Lithuania 

Gediminas Petrauskas is convinced that all the 

ideas of this project – Kaunas as a river-sea port 

and the centre of low-fare flights, the project of a 

fast railway and an intermodal terminal together 

with Klaipėda – can form a logistic technological 

platform for Lithuania. 

A technological platform means uniting interests 

from certain economic sectors, business 

enterprises, scientific research institutions, the representatives 

of financial groups looking for the implementation 

of innovative ideas in a certain sector. 

“Wishing to attract EU investments into 

Lithuanian projects, it is necessary to present an 

original project of technological platforms,” says 

Mr. Petrauskas. “Road, railway, sea and air transport 

technological platforms are already operating 

in Europe, and we could create a technological 

platform in logistics. Cities, regions, industrialists, 

businessmen and politicians would integrate 

into this project. Global thinking is necessary 

for the development of technological platforms. 

The European Union plans to use the 7 th Framework 

programme to finance European platforms, 

according to which, it is planned to allocate 

45 billion euros. Besides, these platforms would attract 

private investments.” 

Vaidotas Jakuska 


New Markets 

Cheap raw materials, a cheap labour force and a market as great as the steppes of Eurasia 

Take a look at the Black Sea and Caspian 

Reducing costs, finding inexpensive raw materials, exploitation 

of markets with perspectives and gaining a competitive advantage 

thanks to innovative decisions – are some of the challenges 

faced by many managers these days. 

Every one of these goals may be attained 

when you enter the markets of the 

Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions. 

It holds even more true since in 

the near future this will be Europe’s most 

dynamically developing region where the 

authorities and business circles are bent on 

developing their cooperation with the Baltic 

region and Western Europe. 

The Black Sea region encompasses the 

eight post-communist countries such as Bulgaria, 

Romania, Moldova, the Ukraine, Belarus, 

Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is a huge market 

with as many as 106,5 million consumers 

whose buying power increases on the average 

by 15 to 20 percent each year in real terms. 

Where Europe’s energy safety lies 

Both Azerbaijan, which lies on the rim of the 

Black Sea in Europe, and Kazakhstan, which is 

situated on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea, 

are of particular importance. In recent years, 

these two countries have come to be some of the 

world’s more important areas for mining energy 

(oil and gas) and minerals (gold, silver, platinum, 

copper ores, aggregates) and raw materials. 

These raw material deposits are of principal 

importance for Europe, for it is here where the 

chance for guaranteeing energy safety and securing 

an uninterrupted supply of raw materials is badly 

looked for. Neither Azerbaijan nor Kazakhstan 

can take advantage of its raw material potential on 

its own. The exploitation of new deposits requires 

costly research work, specialized technology and 

capital, all of which are not in ample supply in 

these countries. This is why Baku and Astana are 

particularly interested in attracting new investors, 

also those from the Baltic countries. 

One of the consequences of the development 

of the mining industries in Azerbaijan 

and Kazakhstan has been an increase in transit 

importance of the Black Sea countries, for 

the most part of Georgia and the Ukraine. Sea 

transport routes to the Ukrainian ports are in 

fact the only ones linking Europe with the Caucasus 

countries since, as a result of Georgia’s and 

Azerbaijan’s conflict with Russia, their overland 

border with this country is blocked. 

The competitive route which goes via the 

Balkans and Turkey (among others, the Baku- 


Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline) is far more expensive 

and longer. Common interest in the field of 

mining and transferring of raw materials and 

the competition from Russia make the Black 

and Caspian Sea countries consolidate. In 2005, 

a political alliance and the free trade zone of 

Georgia, the Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova 

– called GUAM – was established. 

It is also GUAM’s aim (with the exception of 

Azerbaijan) to cooperate together towards accession 

into NATO and the EU and to develop democracy 

in this region. The USA and the EU, international 

organizations and global consortiums already operating 

in the region, are greatly interested in the 

Black and Caspian Sea region’s stability and development 

on account of its strategic importance. The 

International Monetary Fund and the European 

Development and Reconstruction Bank have been 

generously aiding these countries with donations 

and cheap credit lines aimed at strengthening the 

financial system, curtailing corruption and improving 

the quality of administration. A particularly 

high amount of aid has been offered to Georgia, the 

economic “tiger” of the Caucasus region. 

A rapid economic development 

Romania, the richest country in the region 

that for some time now has been in the EU and 

NATO, is the leader of the transformations. It has 

in the most recent years considerably liberalized its 

economy and introduced a transparent tax system, 

thanks to which, it has become the most rapidly 

developing country in the EU and an attractive 

place for investors. Just behind it is Bulgaria. 

Thanks to the accession to the European Union, 

Romania and Bulgaria have been receiving a 

considerably high level of aid from the European 

funds, a large part of which is utilized for investments 

in transport infrastructure (including the 

sea ports). From among all the countries in the 

region, investments in Romania and Bulgaria are 

marked by low risk mainly on account of the two 

countries being members of NATO and due to 

their strategic alliance with the USA. They are 

the most expensive in the region as far as their 

labour force, raw materials, energy and real estate 

prices are concerned, but at the same time being 

the cheapest member states in the EU. 

For over five years, there has been a very 

high rate of economic growth in all the countries 

of the Black and Caspian Sea regions. Azerbaijan, 

which started off with the lowest level, is in 

the lead with a 34.5% GNP in 2006 and 26.4% 

GNP in 2005. Naturally, this has to do with the 

enormous increase in the amount of oil mined 

and the development of their transport infrastructure. 

The economic growth in neighbouring 

Georgia is not as dazzling but it has, on the 

other hand, more steady foundations. According 

to a World Bank report, between 2004-2005, 

the rate of reforms in the Georgian economy 

was the highest in the world. The new government, 

reformatory in spirit, made the country’s 

economy much more liberal, simplified the tax 

system, carried out reforms in the judicial and 

educational systems. Georgia and Romania have 

now come to be the most attractive countries for 

foreign investors in the region. 

The shipping sector and the transport sector 

(including the sea port of Batumi that has a 

great potential for development) are viewed to 

be investments with the greatest perspectives. 

Because of a very cheap labour force, raw materials, 

energy and land, and likewise on account 

of a favourable investment climate, it also pays 

to set up, in the vicinity of the Georgian ports, 

production plants exporting produce not only 

to Western Europe and Scandinavia but also to 

the richer Black Sea countries such as Romania, 

the Ukraine and Bulgaria whose markets keep 

growing at a rate of dozen percent per year. 

Ukraine is awaiting its chance 

Also Ukraine, the region’s biggest country, has 

great perspectives for development. An additional 

impulse for development has been the decision 

that it will, together with Poland, host the 2012 

Football Championships for which both countries 

need to make great preparations. Because of 

this, until 2012 many transport investments will 

be made, among others the Luhansk-Donetsk- 

Kiev-Lviv motorway that will further interconnect 

Cracow and Berlin. It will also connect the western 

part of Ukraine with the existing motorway 

between Odessa and Kiev. 

The Ukrainian airports and the rail infrastructure 

will be thoroughly modernized too. In recent 

years, Ukraine invested a lot of money in connecting, 

by a deepwater canal, the sea-and-river port of 

Illičivsk (close to Odessa) with the Danube water 

system. Between 2001 and 2006, Ukraine’s economic 

growth amounted to 5.4 percent on average 

and, according to economic forecasts, it will oscillate 

between 6 to 9 percent in the near future. 

The demand for the transport of energy

Sea regions 

raw materials along the line: Caucasus-Ukraine- 

Western Europe and the political support for this 

kind of cooperation will exert influence on the 

development of navigation on the Black Sea and 

on its ports. The condition of the Black Sea ports, 

shipyards and navigation is reminiscent to that in 

the eastern and southern part of the Baltic Sea in 

the beginning of the 1990s. The Black Sea ports, 

likewise the line infrastructure of Ukraine, Georgia 

and Azerbaijan require great investments. The 

said countries are also interested in adapting the 

western-style patterns in the sphere of management 

and marketing, in the transfer of modern 

technologies and in making business contacts 

in the Baltic region. By adopting a proper attitude, 

investments in trans-shipping terminals, 

shipyards, port-related services, ferry lines and 

logistics centres can yield profits incomparable to 

those that could be made in the Baltic region. 

On the way to the Middle East 

One must not forget a far more greater 

advantage and perspective that will accrue in 

this region in ten to fifteen years from now 

after the planned transport projects have 

been realized and the market has developed 

sufficiently. It is especially worthwhile to 

think of setting up regional agencies of international 

companies in Georgia which is 

soon to become a NATO member and, in the 

long run, it could join the EU. 

Tbilisi and Baku are two excellent “springboards” 

to the countries of the Near East and 

Kazakhstan that are rich in raw materials. It is 

especially in Azerbaijan that specialists wellinformed 

on the realities of these countries are 

not in short supply. Also because of the cultural 

kinship between these countries and the natives 

of Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan is the world’s biggest 

mining centre for practically all the major raw 

materials (from oil and gas to building materials, 

to copper, gold, platinum and uranium). 

Its mining capacities, however, are utilized to a 

very small degree. Further investors from the 

USA, Western Europe and Russia keep pouring 

into this country all the time while new mines 

and transportation lines are being launched. 

In the forthcoming twenty years, Kazakhstan 

will have convenient road, rail and 

transfer connections both to Europe (via Azerbaijan 

and Georgia and via the competitive 

Russian routes) and to China, with which the 

city of Astan has had favourable relations. In 

New Markets 

this way, an interesting overland and sea connection 

between Europe and China will be 

opened via the Black and Caspian Seas. 

One must beat the competitors 

Also, the establishment of industrial plants 

on the Black Sea coast presents great prospects 

for businesses in the Black Sea region. Thanks 

to the access to cheap raw materials (steel, oils, 

building materials) and to the labour force that is 

forecast to continue to be inexpensive for another 

two decades, products manufactured on the 

Black Sea coast will be competitive price-wise in 

comparison to Baltic products. Their export will 

be made easier thanks to a free trade zone with 

the Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova that the EU 

is planning to establish in a few years from now. 

The regional economic integration will stimulate 

the trade exchange between the Ukraine, Georgia, 

Azerbaijan and Moldova and the development 

of maritime transport on the Black Sea. 

It is worth bearing in mind that according 

to all available forecasts, in ten years 

from now the value of the market with over 

hundred million consumers will double. It 

makes economic sense to be there already 

now when the competition is still weak. 

Kuba Łoginow 


Transport miscellany 

The camouflaged barge 

This pattern of camouflage was invented during WWI and continues 

to be used not only on warships but also on ordinary trade vessels. 

Even the respectable transatlantic liners were painted in such stripes. 

Here, however, in front of us is a barge moored at the Dutch port of Arnhem. 

On board the barge there is an amusement centre with pubs, discotheques 

and slot machine halls. The “camouflage” in this case has been 

used for an altogether different purpose than that during war time. 

Ships and airships 

The enclosed post-card, entitled “Dresden Luftschiffhalle”, makes 

the impression of a photomontage and it may look devoid of beauty 

but it makes one realize two issues: firstly, that in the course of our 

history, there was a brief period when real airships were larger than 

the majority of water crafts, secondly – that neither earlier nor later 

was there ever a fleet of transport ships which could be garaged in its 

entirety in hangars speficifically built for this purpose. Airships were 

much too fragile. And this turned out to be their doom. 

The joy of the numismatists 

Numismatists should be happy to learn that the Royal Danish Mint 

has started bringing out a series of at least ten thematic coins depicting 

ships on the reverse side of the coins. The first twenty – Danish – krone 

coin was issued on April 25 th this year on the occasion of the ship Galathea 

3 completing her scientific research voyage. A Danish Navy frigate – Vædderen 

– can be seen on it. For this occasion, she was “armed” with scientific 

laboratories and maps with the ship’s itinerary around the world 

marked on it. If only all warships… were armed in such a way. 


Danish-Polish postcard 

The postcard edited in 1929 by a subsidiary of the famous Danish 

East Asiatic Company (EAC) is very important for Polish collectors 

because it was the first such item printed for Polish customers. The 

notice on the back advertises the “line” in Polish and informs about 

the address of the Warsaw office. Even the name “Baltic American 

Line” is translated. In 1930 the depicted vessel – s/s Polonia – hoisted 

the Polish flag as a corner-stone for the newly founded GAL (POL 

after the war) but that is another story. 

Gathered together under the 

funnels 

The photographs of river ships, such as these in the collection 

of Waldemar Danielewicz, often have more charm than the images 

of sea vessels. On board the Berthold, the rear-wheeled tugboat, 

members of the crew gathered with their families, while above its 

name, a trident and a sea serpent were painted. Was navigation not 

a trade with far more freedom and warmth in those days?

BTJ 3/2007 - Baltic Transport Journal

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