Węglokoks, a capital group bringing together companies from the steel, energy and logistics industries, acquired 80% of the shares in Port Północny, granting it control over the company. The transaction was announced during a press conference on 5 October by the Minister of State Assets, Jacek Sasin.

“I’m proud that, together with Węglokoks, we can pursue our strategic goals, to ensure energy security for Poland,” said Łukasz Malinowski, president of the Port of Gdańsk, during the conference.

Since 2008, the major shareholder of the Port Północny has been a Belgian Sea-Invest group, a leader among handling companies in Western Europe and Africa. Port Północny runs the handling terminal for bulk cargo in the Port of Gdańsk. It has managed the key infrastructure for coal imports into our country since the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

The acquisition of a controlling interest in the company by Węglokoks will strengthen its position in the logistics market. Tomasz Heryszek, president of Węglokoks, emphasises that the main advantage of Port Północny is access to the deep-water quay. This gives Węglokoks many strategic benefits in the market. It plans to increase the handling capacity from 10 million tons a year to 15 million tons, and even to 20 million tons in the long run.

“Access to deep water makes us a significant player, not only in Poland, but throughout the entire Western and Eastern European strip, as we also intend on serving the Czech and Slovak markets,” said president Tomasz Heryszek. “We are taking over two piers, and only one is active. The former operator, which was the company owner until yesterday, was not interested in developing this pier. But we have an idea for its development. We want to adapt it bidirectionality, as we are considering various types of bulk cargo,” said Tomasz Heryszek.