Page 22: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Sep/Oct 2018)

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PORT LOGISTICS

A P3 BOOST

FOR BALTIC

BOX SHIPS

By William Stoichevski uropean Private-public partnerships, or P3’s, can do great things. They spread local taxpayer risk; they afford new

Einfrastructure, and they can help secure suffcient scale for the well-capitalized box ship company. For port authorities, public money — diverted by the European Union’s or their own people — means playing landlord in a way that helps terminal operators make the most of prized property. For feeder lines and short-sea shippers using Baltic Sea and North Sea ports of call, P3 upgrades are becoming trade multipliers.

Bigger is Better in the Baltic

If you’re planning to ship goods to Polish consumers directly from the US or from UK warehouses to Central Europe – and vice versa – then you’d be among an increasing number of customers for container lines in the Baltic Region.

Unifeeder, for example, has just doubled its frequency of cargo moves by sea between Polish ports Gdansk, Gdynia and Imming- ham in the UK. The three ports of call have recently benefted from P3 investments of various kinds, and now terminal operators aided by the public purse are gearing up for more business. Im- mingham — within a very short drive of several large UK cities — is undergoing beautifcation and quayside upgrades. Nearby roads and warehouses are being built, demolished and renewed in the name of more port activity. BCT Gdynia’s public-relations nerve center is ICTI of the Phil-

At Baltic Container Terminal, Gdynia, new cranes — “to in- ippines, and we failed to meet up. We do know that Gdynia is crease the potential of intermodal operations” — have been co- hoping to up its fortunes by switching from a feeder exchange fnanced through the European Union’s Cohesion Fund. Measure with European transhipment ports to a new system of “oce-

No. 7.4, Priority VII (Environment-friendly transport, Operation- anic connections” expected to bring feeder business to Gdynia al Program Infrastructure and the Environment) will see to it that from Western Europe’s cross-ocean ports of call — at Antwerp,

BCT Gdynia’s quays receive about PLN 16.3 million (USD 4.5 Bremerhaven, Rotterdam — to the Indian Ocean and beyond, million) out of total project costs of PLN 67.3 million (USD 18.4 including legs to Australia with the MSC Carolina. So, Gdynia million). EU funds are also behind a plan to buy 80 trucks for the could see more of the larger ships like the 330-meter MSC Paris new 45-foot containers helping make shortsea shipping a success. that sailed into the Bay of Gdynia in April 2018. 22 Maritime Logistics Professional September/October 2018 | |