Port of Gdansk Eksploatacja to invest in 9 additional grain storage facilities

One of the leading companies when it comes to grain handling in the Port of Gdańsk, namely Port Gdański Eksploatacja (PGE) from the Capital Group of the Port of Gdańsk Authority S.A. (ZMPG). (ZMPG) will invest in nine additional grain warehouses. In doing so, it will increase its storage capacity by as much as five times – to 152,000 tonnes per year. The company’s handling capacity will ultimately increase from 0.7 million tonnes to 2.9 million tonnes per year.

This project will be carried out by PGE jointly with ZMPG, which will allow the state to maintain control over the development of conditions and capacities for grain handling and storage.

– The value of PGE’s entire investment project in the area of the Vistula and Szczecin Quays is approximately PLN 400 million. It will include the construction and reconstruction of infrastructure on the land side (rail, roads, storage and warehousing areas) and on the water side (reconstruction of quays, strengthening and deepening of the bottom for the handling of larger vessels), as well as the purchase of cranes, handling equipment. The investments will be accompanied by improvements in the organisation and handling of grain and feed contractors, including IT systems, avation, control, inspection. The strength of this project is the lead time. Some of the infrastructure investments and purchases of handling equipment are already underway, explains Dorota Pyć, CEO of the Port of Gdansk.

– These investments are of a universal nature. They will allow, in the future, transshipment and storage of not only grain, fodder or meal, but also all unitised cargo requiring roofing. This location has very high development potential. It makes it possible, of course, depending on market conditions, to implement an even larger investment project in the form of a Grain and Feed Terminal, including batteries of silos,’ adds Dorota Pyć.

Thanks to this investment, Port Gdański Eksploatacja will increase its potential and become a key entity for Polish grain exports.

PGE operates on five quays, but handles grain at the Szczecin and Wiślany quays. There, it plans to build new warehouses with the capacity to handle ships with cargoes of up to 36,000 tonnes, with a maximum draught of up to 10.6m.

Five grain warehouses will be built at the Vistula Quay. On the other hand, 4 warehouses will be erected on the Szczecin quay, on the site of the former container terminal on Chodackiego Street. The total length of both quays is 1.9 km.

– The terminal, which is already in operation, has well-developed technical facilities such as access roads, rail tracks, transshipment equipment, paved areas and warehouses. The planned modernisation and expansion allows for an increase in capacity without the need to build these elements from scratch, which reduces the cost and time of the investment, emphasises Andrzej Kuźmicz, PGE’s president. – In the case of increasing demand for grain handling in the Port of Gdansk, the expansion of the existing PGE terminal enables faster adaptation to customer needs. As a result, the terminal can handle higher cargo volumes in a short period of time, thus attracting more new contractors.

PGE is successively investing in modern cargo handling equipment. For the purchase of handling equipment, as well as for the construction of storage yards and warehouses, the company has spent more than PLN 153 million over three years. Amongst other things, it has acquired: three Liebherr LHM 550 wharf-mounted mobile cranes, each with a lifting capacity of 124 tonnes, which allows cargo handling to be carried out.

The cranes are equipped with a variety of grippers to handle loose materials of different densities and automatic container spreaders to handle unitised cargo. It has also purchased two smaller Liebherr LHM 280 cranes, each with a lifting capacity of 80 tonnes, a 50 m long REMO 1400 conveyor belt for loading bulk materials in direct relation to the ship. Thanks to such investments, it has become a significant player in the market.

Cereals in the Port of Gdansk

In the Inner Port of Gdansk, cereals are handled by eight operators: Port Gdański Eksploatacja (PGE), Magrol, Gdańskie Młyny, GBT, Handel i Minerały, Jargut, Speed and Fast Track.
Thanks to its own investments as well as those of its contractors, the Port of Gdansk has doubled its grain handling capacity over the past five years from 2 million tonnes (2019) to 4.3 million tonnes (current). Last year, grain handling jumped to 3.1 million tonnes, mainly in the export relationship. Between January and October this year, 2.4 million tonnes of grain were handled.

The Port of Gdansk Authority will spend more than half a billion zlotys on the reconstruction of quays and railway lines in the inner port over the next three years.

Source: PortalMorski.pl