ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the ports of Gdynia and Gdansk and places them in their geographical setting. It provides a brief historical background and progresses to describe their organisational and operational characteristics. The ports of Gdynia and Gdansk are located in the eastern third of the Polish coastline, only 32 km apart, Gdynia being a coastal seaport, whilst Gdansk is largely an inland seaport although with developments concentrated closer to the open sea. The Port of Gdynia has considerable plans for the immediate and long term future which they intend to use to build upon the changes in structure, ownership and organisation that have been achieved already. Bulk commodities dominate in the port of Gdansk and these in turn are characterised by a limited number of specialisms derived largely from the Communist dominated days prior to 1989. Coal is easily the most significant commodity that moves through the port, representing some 39% of throughput in 1995 at 7.1m tonnes.
