Business, Freight News, Logistics, Road, Sea

Think local urges Polish port chief

[ October 26, 2011   //   Chris ]

The Polish economy could be boosted by billions of zloty if most container traffic from the Far East was directed through Polish ports rather than through Germany or Benelux, according to CEO of the Deepwater Container Terminal in Gdansk, Boris Wenzel.

A switch to Gdansk would also create thousands of new jobs in the Tri-city and reduce the high Co2 emissions associated with trucking and railing containers to Poland from ports like Rotterdam and Hamburg, believes Mr. Wenzel. The country could also gain billions in extra import duties, he added.

He said that Polish consumers are paying more for imported goods than they should, and Polish exports are less competitive because of higher transport costs to reach foreign hub ports. He added: “This is foolish now that Poland has its own hub port in Gdansk”,

But to realize the full potential of Polish ports, Wenzel added, the government needs to urgently address bureaucratic, financial and infrastructural bottlenecks, which continue to make foreign ports attractive. Priority should go to infrastructure development to efficiently connect Polish ports to the southern and eastern parts of the country, instead of supporting West–East connections.