ZMPSiŚ hopes to award a preliminary agreement for the project by the end of 2020 and is currently preparing documentation for the process. WorldCargo News understands that the port authority’s plans envisage a terminal with an initial capacity to handle at least 2M TEU a year, but with the potential for expansion.

It is also understood that the preliminary agreement is based on a points system, with parties that offer to develop a bigger terminal receiving higher scores. However, a port spokesperson stressed that common sense would prevail on this front and that it was very open to candidates sharing their design and layout plans for the project.

ZMPSiŚ hopes that as wide a range of bidders as possible will put forward proposals, with the spokesperson stressing that the port authority’s objective was to “choose the best candidate to operate a successful deepwater container terminal with a long-term lease contract”.

Bidders have to submit their proposals by 9 November 2020, with an assessment period then running until 23 November. Negotiations for the primary agreement are scheduled to commence two days later on 25 November and should be concluded by the end of the year.

Once the preliminary agreement has been signed, negotiations will take place to finalise a land-use and lease agreement. ZMPSiŚ hopes to commission the first phase of the terminal during 2023.

Recent years have seen container traffic to/from the Baltic Sea increase rapidly, with several ocean carriers offering direct-call services, including on routes to/from Asia. ZMPSiŚ said the market was now worth around 9M TEU a year and there was a need for another hub.

Currently, the main transhipment  port in the region is located in Gdansk, which handles approximately 2M TEU a year, but German and Benelux ports continue to process significant volumes of traffic for Russia, the Baltic States and Finland.

“Our market analyses show that there’s a place for the next hub in the Baltic, as direct calls of oceangoing vessels have proved to be very efficient and cost-effective,” said the ZMPSiŚ spokesperson. The project is highly ambitious for ZMPSiŚ given the strength of market competition and its lack of experience in container shipping. In 2019, the port complex handled only 76,143 TEU, down 6.5% on 2018.

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This complete item is approximately 400 words in length, and appeared in the September 2020 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 7. To access this issue download the PDF here