Polish conversion
The fact that Poland’s newest container terminal DCT Gdansk took a long time to find the financing required for its set-up was no accident.
The project was well conceived in terms of terminal design and equipment application but widely recognised to be short on market analysis – it was in fact an echo of the Thamesport story in the UK and this too was no accident as key figures behind this development were also behind DCT Gdansk.
According to press reports, DCT Gdansk will this year handle 450,000 teu and accordingly it is trumpeting its success. But is the business a success yet?
Leaving aside the fact that the business had a couple of lean years after it opened for business in 2007, today it has only one major client, Maersk Line. It is Maersk Line that accounts for over 90% of the volume of the terminal. And hardly surprisingly, when Maersk signed up to move from Gdynia to DCT Gdansk it is known to have done so on very favourable terms – as regards the base rates charged to it and a range of penalties that are applied to the terminal operator if it fails to do “this and that” within given times etc. The yield per teu from the Maersk business is thus understood to be relatively small.
Further, the operating priorities that Maersk has secured for itself may well hinder the terminal’s overall flexibility when it comes to attempting to secure another major client. And of course while it only has Maersk as a large client then it is vulnerable to the whims and fancies of this line which is known to be a tough negotiator with terminals.
Is DCT Gdansk “living the dream” and acting as a hub for the Baltic, one of the stated objectives of its developers? Is it making a profit yet? Well it is acting as a hub for a direct call mothership operated by Maersk but beyond this fulfilling the role of a hub for the Baltic remains more theory than practice.
While it may happen over time, clearly there will not be a flood of direct call services such as happened in the Black Sea. And in this regard it will not be the only option available.
The Baltic Container Terminal (BCT), Gdynia has plans underway to offer a deep draught berth. The plan is to offer a quay with a draught of 15m alongside in four to five years. Gdynia as a port and BCT in particular, a wholly-owned ICTSI subsidiary, has had a long established presence in the container handling business and is committed to maintaining its leading presence in this respect. And so far as making a profit is concerned the record shows DCT Gdansk has not achieved this so far.
Another plan for a deep draught facility plus a large expansion of its terminal capacity has been announced by Hutchison which currently has a fairly small terminal facility located in the port of Gdynia, where CMA-CGM is the main client. It is interesting that Hutchison has taken this step given the large amount of new terminal capacity introduced into the Polish market by DCT Gdansk. There appears to be no rationale in terms of demand for the proposed terminal upgrade but instead informed sources suggest that it stems from the availability of soft financing. Whether the latter arrangement is ethical in terms of good port management and indeed is not open to question in terms of EU competition rules is something to speculate on.
