Green and digital transformation of polish ports offers business opportunities for Finnish companies

Polish ports in a nutshell

• Over EUR 9 bn investment plans
• 4 large ports serving 133 mn tonnes cargo
• 57 smaller ports and harbours
• Wind off-shore servicing ports boom
• Marine Off-loading Facility for nuclear loads planned

Poland has four seaports of fundamental importance for the national economy – Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Świnoujście – as well as 57 smaller seaports and harbours. Four main seaports handled in total 133 millions of cargo in 2022. Additionally, ports for offshore services – installation and service ports – are an important emerging ecosystem in the Polish maritime landscape. Polish seaports have ambitious investment plans for the coming years. Governmental “Program for the development of Polish seaports until 2030” includes investments worth approx. 9 bn EUR.

Polish ports indicate continuous improvement of their competitive position on a national, Baltic and European scale as their goals and priorities. They express the desire to improve the quality of the service offered by implementing, among others, new technologies, ensuring modern and low-failure infrastructure and technical suprastructure, using innovative, automatized and digitalized solutions, simplification of administrative formalities. Polish ports and port operators already offer a number of automated services and many processes are already digitalized.

However, there is still room for development in the area of digitalization and automation. Ports emphasize the need to adapt technologies and services to the requirements of climate and environmental protection. The growing awareness of ports regarding the impact of their activities on the climate and the environment, as well as EU climate goals, will lead to the search for and implementation of solutions related to minimizing the impact on the climate and the environment.

Target Sectors

Finnish companies are considered as reliable business partners and many of them are already present with their solutions at Polish ports. Companies with the following offering and willingness to commit to the local market can find business opportunities in Poland:

• Port infrastructure development
• Connectivity & data management
• Port and cargo automation
• Smart Port solutions
• Energy & environmental solutions
  
  

Solutions or Products Needed by Customer

Polish ports development plans and needs cover four main areas which are relevant for Finnish offering:

1. Port design, port infrastructure and suprastructure
2. Automation
3. Digitalization
4. Energy transition, new fuels and environmental solutions.

Ports are in the process of implementing or planning various infrastructural investments, such as: development of containers terminals, development of ferry terminals, development of terminals dedicated to installation or maintenance of offshore wind farms and development of infrastructure dedicated to serve other types of vessels and cargo.

Among the needs connected with the new infrastructural projects that are planned in Polish ports are mainly:

• design services for infrastructural projects
• new equipment for handling cargo (cranes, terminal vehicles etc.)
• ro-ro ramps and all other equipment and services needed for newly developed port infrastructure.

A specific, niche need, identified in conversations with experts, are c-UAV solutions, i.e.: anti-drone systems. Offshore wind energy development opens up new business opportunities in the maritime sector. Terminals dedicated to the offshore wind energy must be adapted to the handling of large-size cargo with an oversize load on the quay and have an appropriate structure of the bottom at the quay, which will enable handling by specialized units for the construction of jack-up offshore wind farms. There are no such terminals in the vicinity of locations where offshore wind farms can be built, and therefore their construction is necessary.

TF Activities Available for Finnish Companies