Gdynia traffic grows as CEF funding increases

(Posted on 16/10/21)

The Port of Gdynia has ended the first nine months of 2021 with an increase of 12.7% in total cargo volumes. The largest increases were recorded in wood products + 119.2% year-on-year, crude oil and petroleum products + 67.7% , and general cargo + 15.7%.

Continued increases of transshipments cargo in the port is due to cooperation between the management board and the terminals operating in the port area. The Port of Gdynia, as a seaport of fundamental importance for the national economy, is an important element of Polish supply chains and an international distribution and logistics hub.

The next stage of the port’s development strategy is the recently signed contract for co-financing for preparatory work for the investment project "Expansion of access infrastructure in the Port of Gdynia," said Jacek Sadaj, President of the Port of Gdynia Authority SA.

The Port of Gdynia Authority SA, as one of five entities, received funding from the Connecting Europe Facility Fund. The value of the project was set at EUR 1,678,548, the project co-financing amount is: EUR 839,274.

The preparatory work has been underway since the beginning of this year and includes the development of analyses, technical designs and obtaining administrative decisions for three investment phases - in short: extension in Basin V, reconstruction in Basin IV, road and rail access to the above-mentioned areas along the shipyard areas.

In total, 100 applications for co-financing were submitted to the competition, of which 5 received five Polish projects from the Connecting Europe Facility in the amount of EUR 26.1 million. The estimated budget for the competition was initially EUR 200 million, but has however been increased to EUR 307 million.

The funds obtained will allow for large infrastructure investments prepared for the implementation in the perspective of 2021-2027.

Since 2018, the Port of Gdynia has received a total of PLN 4,700,968.98 in co-financing, PLN 1,118,368.70 from the CEF Transport 2018 "Connecting Europe" funds for the project "Feasibility study with technical documentation of the intelligent truck traffic management system at the Port of Gdynia" and PLN 3,860,987.72 in the last competition.

The effective use of own financial resources as well as those obtained from EU funds makes the Port of Gdynia grow dynamically. The domestic logistics sector is more and more willing to use the services of Polish terminals in the Baltic Sea, which is due to the improvement of the access infrastructure, including the modernization of railway lines and sections of highways and expressways opened in recent years. In the Port of Gdynia, all investments are continued according to the schedule. The total value of infrastructure investments within the Port of Gdynia is over PLN 4 billion.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level. It supports the development of efficient, sustainable and effectively interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services. It is centrally managed by the European Commission, which selects projects for co-financing as a result of the competitions it announces. CEF supports three areas: transport, energy and telecommunications networks.

So far, Poland has received EUR 4.3 billion in CEF funding for the implementation of a total of 59 projects in the area of ??transport, making it the largest beneficiary of support from this instrument.