Significant increase in transshipment at Kolobrzeg port

The Kołobrzeg Sea Port Authority has summarised transshipments at the Commercial Port in the first half of 2024. Compared to the same period last year, an increase of almost 30 per cent was recorded.

The first half of this year, in terms of transhipment volume, closed with a total of over 126 thousand tonnes. This is a much better result than that of the end of June 2023, when 97.4 thousand tonnes were recorded. More ships also entered the port during this period: 53, against last year’s 42.

This year, significantly more aggregate reached the port of Kołobrzeg – nearly 42.5 thousand tonnes (last year – 19.1 thousand tonnes). More timber logs were also handled, with a result of almost 27.7 thousand tonnes (last year – 20.7 thousand tonnes). A year ago, pellets amounted to 11.2 thousand tonnes, while in the first half of this year the figure was 8.1 thousand tonnes lower.

As a year ago, Ukrainian maize was at the top of the list of cereals, mainly on ships bound for Rotterdam and on to African countries. By the end of June, more than 26,000 tonnes had been transhipped, compared to last year’s figure of nearly 39,000 tonnes. The lower result was due to problems at the Polish-Ukrainian border during the farmers’ protests.

Wheat came second with 6.8 thousand tonnes (21.5 thousand tonnes were transshipped throughout last year), followed by rapeseed oilseed cake with over 2.4 thousand tonnes (this cargo came from Norway, i.e. a direction not so far associated in Kołobrzeg with agro goods) and Polish barley with nearly 2 thousand tonnes.

Kołobrzeg’s port is the only one on the central coast to have a 621 metre long certified railway siding, which the Seaport Authority managed to save from dismantling, despite the opinions voiced years ago that it was unnecessary in a town focused almost exclusively on spa and tourist activities. It was thanks to this and the investments made earlier, that shortly after the outbreak of war across the eastern border, in the face of the blockade of the Black Sea ports, the port of Kołobrzeg declared its full readiness to participate in the transit of Ukrainian grain through Poland.

Kołobrzeg then joined the four largest Polish state-owned ports through which grain from the Ukraine flowed towards Africa. In spite of last year’s decision, which was most likely a mistake on the part of the government of the time, as a result of which shipments from Ukraine could not reach the city for three months, the port recorded record transshipments in 2023, including grain.

Source: PortalMorski.pl