Port of Gdansk and Port of Thessaloniki on a common course

By Marek Grzybowski

Representatives of the Port of Gdańsk and the Port of Thessaloniki, with the participation of Artur Lompart, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Greece, and representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, signed an agreement that will allow both parties to develop, exchange experiences, and will also open new opportunities for the transport of cargo between our countries within Via Carpatia.

Representatives of the Port of Gdańsk met with the authorities of the Port of Thessaloniki, representatives of the Central Macedonia Region, and representatives of Aristotle University during their visit to Greece. There was an exchange of experiences of all stakeholder groups in Via Carpathia and the Three Seas Initiative, which Greece joined. There was talk of connecting Via Carpatia with a transport corridor to Polish ports. This is the best opportunity to expand transport corridors between Greece and Poland.

The Port of Thessaloniki is one of the largest Greek seaports and one of the largest ports in the Aegean Sea. The port’s annual throughput is 16 million tons. Shipowners serving the port include: BULCON, CMA/CGM, Contship, Ecu-Line, Empros, Evergreen, Hapag Lloyd, K-Line, Lloyd Triestino, LPS, MSC, Norasia, Yang Ming, ZIM.

The Port of Gdansk is the leader in container transshipment in the Baltic Sea and ranks second in total transhipment. During six months of 2023, 1,832 merchant ships called at Gdańsk (average GT 24,585). This is 125 units more than in the first half of 2022 (then the average GT was 20,394). Over the last 6 years, transshipment at the Port of Gdansk has increased by 83%. In 2022, 68.2 million tons of bulk, liquid and container goods were obtained. This is the best result of the Port of Gdansk in history. Compared to last year, this is an increase of over 28%. The transshipment of crude oil, liquid fuels and coal has increased significantly.