DCT Gdansk’s award-winning performance continues into 2009 as it wins two prestigious Pomeranian Griffin awards
Having won both the Golden Giraffe and Amber Duck awards in 2008, the Polish container terminal DCT Gdansk has added two Griffins to its menagerie in 2009.The Gryf Gospodarczy (Economic Griffin) prizes are the most prestigious business awards in the Pomeranian region of Poland. To enable companies large and small to compete for these awards on an equal footing, four are presented, the categories being for micro, small, medium and large enterprises. DCT Gdansk scooped the Economic Griffin award in the medium-size category. DCT Gdansk’s second award was the Gryf Medialny or Media Griffin, so called because the winner of this particular Griffin is voted for by the readers of the Dziennik Baltycki newspaper, Radio Gdansk listeners and TVP Gdansk viewers.The organizer of this competition is the Pomeranian Council of Entrepreneurship, which also performs the role of advisor to the Pomeranian Provincial Governor in supporting entrepreneurship. The award committee, chaired by Marshall Jan Kozlowski and the Provincial Governor, Roman Zaborowski, awarded prizes to dynamic, independent operating companies with improving financial results and a business philosophy characterised by transparency and honesty. Their contribution to enhancing the image and development of the region is also taken into account.Collecting the two awards, DCT Gdansk’s CEO, Boris Wenzel, stated; “Last year, we won the Golden Giraffe and Amber Duck prizes and winning the Pomeranian Griffin awards this year is really the icing on the top of the cake. “And of course, we have reason to be doubly delighted since we won two statuettes. Our efforts over the past few years have been recognised not only by the jury but also by the general public who read, listen to or watch the local media.
“We are sure we will be collecting even more awards in the future because we have exciting plans for the future and we mean to succeed. We want to compete directly with German or Dutch ports. Not only do we want Polish cargo to enter or leave Poland via DCT Gdansk, not via Hamburg, Bremerhaven or Rotterdam, we want shipping lines with cargo destined for countries such as Belarus, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to select DCT Gdansk as the natural gateway.. We have a first-class terminal with excellent workers; we have grown rapidly but we still plan to grow more.”
Shipping companies already calling at DCT include the shortsea multimodal operator Containerships, common feeder operators IMCL/BCL and Team Lines, and Maersk Line, which operates a dedicated feeder to its present deepsea hub at Bremerhaven. Box operators such as Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, CMA CGM, Cosco, Zim, Hyundai, Hamburg Sud, MOL, China Shipping, Evergreen and Maruba Shipping accept DCT Gdansk as the handling terminal for their containers using common user feeders. The newly opened feeder connection to/from Rotterdam will now enhance the possibility of co-operation with lines entering Poland via Rotterdam, such as Yang Ming, K-Line and others.
DCT Gdansk shows off its heavylift cargo capabilities
The new DCT Gdansk container terminal has, as its name suggests, container handling as its primary function. However, since it opened in 2007, it has had several opportunities to demonstrate its versatility, notably with the transhipment of motor vehicles from deepsea to feeder car carriers and even the handling of a cruise vessel. It has also handled several heavylift vessels including, of course, the vessels that delivered its ship-to-shore cranes and RTGs.
More recently though, the terminal has handled a number of very heavy pieces destined for the adjacent Gdansk oil refinery, operated by Group Lotos, and further shipments are programmed for later in 2009. This current shipment and a second, scheduled for July, are being handled by the Polish freight forwarder Hermes, which is headquartered in Gdynia.
Lotos is expanding and upgrading the Gdansk refinery under the so-called 10+ Programme, which complies with the policy of the Polish Government concerning the petroleum sector. This requires Group Lotos to improve the power security of Poland by providing continuity of energy raw material supplies. Within the 10+ Programme, a number of technologically advanced petroleum installations are being constructed, which will enhance the efficiency of petroleum processing. The development of the systems involves advanced technologies that guarantee a high level of desulphurisation of petroleum products and minimise the negative impact on the environment. The first shipment was delivered at the beginning of May by Jumbo Shipping’s heavylift vessel Fairplayer and included three reactors, two weighing approximately 805 tonnes each and the third weighing 1,170 tonnes. The three units each exceeded 28m in length.
The method of discharging used multi-wheeled trailers that were transferred onto a barge using DCT Gdansk’s ro-ro ramp. On the first day of discharge (4 May), the barge was brought alongside Fairplayer, which was moored on the main quay, and using one of her two 900-tonne capacity cranes, the first reactor was placed directly onto the trailers. The loaded barge then moved back to the ro-ro ramp, allowing the reactor to be rolled ashore and placed on the quay. On the following day, the whole exercise was repeated and the second reactor was placed on the quay.
On the third day, using both of her cranes working in tandem, Fairplayer discharged the third and heaviest reactor on to the trailers and the barge then sailed directly to the refinery site, allowing Fairplayer to depart, her job accomplished. The first two reactors will be collected later by the barge and trailers from DCT Gdansk’s terminal.
In July, another reactor, this time weighing over 1,300 tonnes and measuring over 34m in length, is due to move over the DCT terminal. DCT Gdansk already has experience of handling this type of shipment. In August 2008, a reactor weighing 700 tonnes was transhipped from the heavylift vessel Annette onto a pontoon for on-carriage to the Gdansk refinery.
