Industry in Seaports in the Baltic Sea Region

Abstract

: The article refers to research on the industrialisation of ports. Nowadays, apart from the offshore industry, this topic was not discussed in more detail in the literature. The aim of the study was to check the structure of production plants not closely related to maritime economy which operate in seaports of the Baltic Sea Region and to evaluate the role of maritime transport in servicing individual plants. The analysis excluded maritime construction and shipbuilding (production and repair yards), as well as fishing ports due to their specificity in production. The research area covered the Baltic Sea Region understood as 9 countries: Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark.
We can distinguish industrial ports that are part of commercial ports or independent ports that are an important link in the industrial production chain. There were about 270 transhipment ports in the study area, two fifths of which were of industrial importance. The types of industry appearing in the surveyed port centres, as well as the conditions of using ports for the needs of industrial plants located in them were characterised. In the structure of the identified plants, the largest group was the wood and paper industry, a significant number of plants also represented the following industries: energy, mineral and metallurgy. Access to maritime transport is crucial for the fuel and energy sector - it was the only or main route for the supply of raw materials for production for a part of refineries and power plants.