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Why Poland
Strategic location in the heart of Europe
Infrastructure
Poland has been rapidly expanding its road, rail, air and sea infrastructure. Due to its strategic location at the intersection of the main transport routes on both the north-south and the east-west lines, Poland places a lot of emphasis on maintaining a strong position on the logistics map of Europe. Major projects such as the “Solidarity” Transport Hub, Polish involvement in the Belt and Road initiative, and the North-south “via Carpatia” route testify to Poland’s position as a regional leader.
Transit through Poland
Transit traffic between Western and Southern Europe and the countries of the eastern part of the continent (including i.e. Estonia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) and China runs through Poland. Poland is crossed by routes of international importance, including:
Motorways and expressways (19.05.2021)
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Source: Own study based on data from the General Directorate for National Roads and Highways and Wikipedia
| Map ref. number | Route | A number of connected countries |
| 1 | Helsinki – Tallinn – Riga – Warszawa/Gdańsk | 6 |
| 2 | Berlin – Warszawa – Minsk – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod | 4 |
| 3 | Berlin/Dresden – Wrocław – Katowice – Kraków – Rzeszów – Lviv – Kiev | 3 |
4 | Gdańsk – Grudziądz – Toruń – Łódź – Katowice – Żylina – Ostrava | 3 |
Transshipment terminals in Poland
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Source: Statistics Poland (PL:GUS) - Intermodal transport in Poland in 2019
Maritime transport
Poland has four maritime ports of major strategic importance to the Polish economy:
1. The Port Szczecin
Is a universal port that supports both general cargo (containers, oversized cargo) and bulk cargo (coal, coke, grain, etc.). It can be used by ships with a maximum length of 215 m and a maximum draft of 9.15 m. In 2018, cargo turnover in the port of Szczecin accounted for 10.2% of the turnover in Polish seaports.
2. The Port Świnoujście
Is located directly on the Baltic Sea coast. It can be used by ships with a maximum length of 270 m. and a maximum draft of 13.5 m. The port houses a terminal handling dry bulk cargo, mainly coal, ore and agricultural products (a terminal specializing in transshipment of agri-food goods). An important function of the port is the handling of general cargo reloaded using conventional methods, as well as in containers and in the ro-ro system. The port in Świnoujście has a ferry terminal with five bays which serve passenger-car and car-rail ferries on the route to Sweden. Świnoujście’s share of cargo turnover of Polish seaports in 2018 was 18.3%. In terms of the regular connections, they are to the Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, Ireland and Russia as well as container feed connections to the largest base ports of- Hamburg, Bremenhaven and Rotterdam.
3. The Port Gdynia
In 2018, the turnover in the port of Gdynia accounted for 22.8% of the total turnover of Polish seaports and amounted to 20,974.3 thousand tones, reaching the highest level recorded since the year 2000. The port specialises in handling general cargo, mainly unit loads transported in containers (it has two modern container terminals) and in handling rolling units (terminal for ro-ro units). Ships with a maximum length of 340 m and a draft of up to 13.0 m may call at the port of Gdynia.
4. The Port DCT Gdańsk and its Deepwater Container Terminal
The annual capacity of the terminal is 3,000,000 TEU and the storage area is 55,000 TEU. It can be used by ships with a maximum length of 425 m and a maximum draft of 15 m. The port of Gdańsk has the largest share of cargo turnover of all Polish seaports, which in 2018 amounted to 46.2%.
In 2020, the cargo turnover in seaports amounted to 88.5 million tones, i.e. 5.7% more than in 2019. Domestic sea turnover amounted to 2.8 million tones (33.5% more than in the previous year) and accounted for 3.1% of the total turnover. In the international maritime traffic, a total of 85.7 million tons of cargo were transhipped (96.9% of the total turnover), i.e. by 6.6%. less than in 2019.
Air transport
There are thirteen international airports in Poland. The largest airport - Warsaw's Okęcie (Chopin Airport), alongside the airports in Katowice and Gdańsk – also serve also as an important transshipment hub for air cargo. The “Solidarity” Transport Hub in Baranów is scheduled to be completed by 2027 and will be the largest hub in this part of Europe.
A cargo terminal has been operating at Warsaw Chopin Airport since the second half of 2017.
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Source: Own study based on data from the Polish Civil Aviation Authority for the year 2019.
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