Maersk shifted its feeder operation from BCT Gdynia to DCT Gdansk on price grounds at the start of this year, but would have had an eye on the possibilities that the purpose-built, deep water DCT facility could offer.

The decision to extend the AE10 to Gdansk with the biggest container vessels yet to enter the Baltic is the first – and key – vindication of DCT’s rationale.

A statement issued on behalf of DCT says: “Introducing direct calls through DCT Gdansk will change the dynamics of serving the Baltic Sea region and opens a new era of container shipping in this part of the world. As a result DCT Gdansk SA becomes Poland’s largest container terminal.

The first AE10 call will be made by the 8200 TEU MAERSK TAIKUNG, which is due to depart from Shanghai on 1 December with an ETA in Gdansk on 5 January, 2010. The port rotation will be: Ningbo, Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelepas, Le Havre, Zeebrugge, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Aarhus, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kobe, Nagoya, Shimizu, Yokohama and Ningbo.

“This is a historic moment for the Polish port industry,” said DCT Gdansk’s CEO, Boris Wenzel. For almost 40 years, there have been direct container services linking Asia and Europe, but most terminated in Germany and relied on transhipment to serve Scandinavia and the Baltic.

“While many analysts doubted the economics of sending post-Panamax ships into the Baltic Sea, we have always held the belief that large vessels would come directly to Gdansk as it develops into the gateway to central Europe and Russia.

“The [global economic] crisis has just functioned as a time accelerator and made it happen earlier than we planned. Now that the market is created, we are convinced that more lines will choose to add DCT to their mainline schedules and we are already planning options for increasing our handling capability to service this demand.”

Commenting on the short period since Maersk started to cooperate with DCT, Wenzel added: “We knew just how well we would have to perform to justify this new business. Our workers have performed brilliantly and Maersk’s ships have been handled with extreme efficiency. Indeed, Maersk’s own terminal scorecard ranks DCT Gdansk in first place among Northern European terminals.

“Poland is a country of nearly 40 million people and should not be reliant on feeder and overland links to ports like Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Rotterdam when, at the same time, DCT is able to accommodate the large vessels that call at these ports.”

In the medium term, DCT Gdansk, which is majority-owned by Macquarie’s GIF II (Global Infrastructure Fund II), believes it should also develop as a gateway to the whole of Central Europe as it believes it is better located than German ports to service these destinations.

Earlier this month, feeder operator Unifeeder opened a new regular feeder service between DCT Gdansk and Baltiysk, in Russia’s Kaliningrad pocket. The twice/weekly service is not primarily connected with onward deepsea feedering, but is an intra-European service associated with automotive parts deliveries from Poland to Russia in cooperation with Rohlig Suus Logistics.