Despite the difficult market situation, June was a record month for steel transshipment at Gdynia Container Terminal (GCT), which is part of the Hutchison Ports group.

The GCT terminal saw the unloading of general cargo in the form of steel products and semi-finished products from two large vessels in June.

- We unloaded more than 25,000 tons of steel slabs from a ship that arrived from the US in cooperation with Cargo Shipping – says Marcin Ćwikliński, head of the general cargo department at the GCT terminal.

It doesn't stop there. In turn, more than 22 thousand tons of steel coils were offloaded from a ship that arrived from Japan. – On this transshipment, in addition to Cargo Shipping, we also cooperated with MAG – he adds.

Despite the difficult geopolitical situation caused by the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on goods from Russia, GCT's heads are pleased that new directions for transporting goods have been activated.

Maximum transshipment rate of 11,000 per day

– We are pleased that despite the difficult situation the terminal is doing so with general cargo. The cargoes we transshipped left the terminal very quickly. This not only saves time, but also money. This is confirmed by the maximum transshipment installment of nearly 11 thousand tons per day – says Marcin Ćwikliński.

The manager stresses that in GCT, as in other terminals – not only in Poland – high utilization of storage yards is observed.

– We expect to maintain such a high level of general cargo handling. In addition, the season of the year favors us – adds the head of the general cargo department.

GCT Gdynia. Transshipments grow despite difficult market situation

Terminal director, Jan Jarmakowski, also tells us about the current condition of the GCT terminal.

– Against the backdrop of growing challenges resulting from the irregularity of container services and congestion in Western European ports, our terminal is doing relatively well. Compared to last year, transshipments of full containers have increased, which we are extremely pleased about, while due to space availability constraints, far fewer empty containers are now passing through our terminal – says director Jarmakowski.

At the same time, the GCT head forecasts that this trend should continue until the end of this year.

– We are also very pleased with the renewed growth in steel cargo handling. As a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus, our transshipments in this segment declined in the last three months, while we ended June with another record. Our terminal is favored by contractors due to its relatively high transshipment rate and efficient loading operations at the rail terminal. We are pleased that steel cargoes have started to reach us from other destinations, which shows that the market is adapting very quickly to new conditions – he concludes.