Cargo turnover in Polish seaports fell by 8.9% y/y in 2024

Transshipment of iron ore and scrap decreased by 21.5% y/y last year

Cargo turnover in the seaports of Poland decreased by 8.9% compared to 2024 to 124.2 million tons. This is evidenced by the data of the Central Statistical Office of Poland.

Last year, the growth of cargo transshipment was recorded only in two ports of the country, in particular, Świnoujście – 18.98 million tons (+3.5% y/y), and Police – 1.07 million tons (+39.2% y/y). The Port of Gdansk handled 71.03 million tons of cargo (-11% y/y), Gdynia – 23.26 million tons (-10% y/y), and Szczecin – 9.92 million tons (-16.1% y/y).

The share of individual ports in the total Polish cargo turnover last year was as follows: Gdansk – 57.2%, Gdynia – 28.7%, Świnoujście – 14.8%, Szczecin – 8%, Police – 0.9%, and other ports – 0.4%.

Transshipment of liquid bulk cargo increased by 3.8% y/y – to 55.13 million tons last year, including 47.64 million tons of crude oil and oil products (+4.2% y/y). Dry bulk cargo handling dropped by 28.2% y/y – to 30.39 million tons, including 1.95 million tons of ore and scrap (-21.5% y/y), and 9.98 million tons of coal and coke (-50.1% y/y). Transportation of large containers decreased by 9.3% y/y – to 24.35 thousand tons.

In domestic traffic, 4.4 million tons of cargo were handled in 2024, up 25.4% y/y. International cargo turnover amounted to 119.8 million tons (-9.8% y/y), and transit cargo – 21.6 million tons (-5.3% y/y). Most of the transit cargo was handled in the port of Gdansk – 65.1%. Compared to 2023, transit decreased for both exports (-27.7% y/y) and imports (-0.8% y/y).

Last year, 20 thousand vessels called at Polish ports compared to 18.9 thousand in 2023.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, Polish seaports reduced transshipment of iron ore and scrap by 18.5% compared to 2022, to 2.49 million tons. Coal and coke transshipment amounted to 19.9 million tons for the year, down 11.3% compared to 2022. The total volume of cargo transshipment in 2023 in the ports of Poland amounted to 135.95 million tons, which is 14.3% more than in 2022.