One bid for Gdynia's Outer Port. MSC wants the 5-billion-zloty terminal, three rivals walked away

The port now has 90 days to evaluate the proposal, so a decision on the partner is due around the turn of the year. The authority's chief executive, Piotr Gorzeński, says the opening closes an important stage and allows the next step towards construction, and that the multi-stage dialogue formula served its purpose. The opening record shows what TiL offered: a fixed operating fee of 7.1 million zloty net a year, a variable fee of 3.30 zloty net per TEU and an operating period of 528 months, or 44 years. A business plan was attached.

A 2.5-million-TEU terminal and breakwaters already in the water

The Outer Port is an artificial pier reaching into the sea beyond the present main breakwater, with a deep-water container terminal of at least 2.5 million TEU a year, able to take ships of over 400 metres and 16 metres of draught, the largest ocean-going vessels calling in the Baltic. Gdynia has no such berth today and leaves that traffic to Gdańsk.

The project is a public-private partnership. The private partner is to finance, design and build the terminal and then operate and maintain it for decades; its contribution was estimated at around 5 billion zloty. The public side, the port and the state budget, is responsible for the land, environmental and geological studies, siting decisions and access infrastructure. That part is already under way: four breakwater sections totalling almost 2.5 kilometres, built from reinforced-concrete caissons, the first of which was towed into place and seated in July. Road and rail access is being prepared in parallel, including the Red Road, without which the whole project stays on paper. The port has committed 100 million zloty net to preparation and is looking at EU Connecting Europe Facility funding for the access infrastructure.

The world's largest carrier, already present in BCT, stands behind the bid

Terminal Investment Limited, based in Geneva, is one of the world's largest container terminal operators. Its majority shareholder is MSC, the world's largest container carrier, with funds managed by BlackRock as minority investors. TiL holds dozens of terminals from Rotterdam to Singapore and is already present in Gdynia as a shareholder in the Baltic Container Terminal, one of the port's two container terminals.

MSC ships have called at Gdynia for years. For the city's mayor, Aleksandra Kosiorek, that is a signal that international business sees the port's potential, though she stresses the procedure is still running and the evaluation stage lies ahead. For the port it is a comfort: a partner that is also a carrier will bring its own ships, which for a 2.5-million-TEU terminal is the condition of viability.

Hutchison, CMA CGM and ICTSI went through the whole dialogue and did not bid

The final phase of the dialogue included a consortium of Hutchison Ports Poland and the Port of Felixstowe, a consortium of Gdynia Terminal Holding from the CMA CGM group with Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments, and International Container Terminal Services of Manila. All three went through years of talks that produced, in the port's words, the most advanced version of the documentation since the project began. None submitted a bid, even though the port in July moved the deadline from 30 June to 30 September precisely at the participants' request for more time.

The port is not commenting and the bidders themselves are silent. For Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong's CK Hutchison, the backdrop is the sale of part of its port portfolio and political pressure on Chinese investment in NATO critical infrastructure. For CMA CGM and ICTSI the costs may have weighed: a 5-billion-zloty terminal over 44 years in a port that still has to build its road and rail link is a bet on a generation. A single bid also means the port has lost the leverage of competition in judging price and terms.

MSC in both Gdynia terminals and some fifteen million zloty a year for the port

If TiL is selected, MSC through its operator will be present in both of Gdynia's container terminals: the existing BCT and the new Outer Port. In Gdańsk, Baltic Hub belongs to PSA of Singapore with infrastructure funds. The Tricity would then be a place where Poland's two largest container hubs are in the hands of two global players, one of which is also the world's largest carrier and can route its own cargo to wherever it owns the terminal.

That is not an argument against the bid but a question about the contract: the terminal's openness to other carriers, tariffs, and how the port protects itself should MSC change its Baltic strategy. A fixed fee of 7.1 million zloty a year plus 3.30 zloty per TEU, even at a full 2.5 million TEU, gives the port some fifteen million zloty a year. Against a partner's investment counted in billions, that is a figure the port's management will have to defend before its supervisory board, the ministry and the public, because in the evaluation there is no second offer to compare it with.

A decision by the end of December, then a contract and only then design

The 90-day evaluation is a statutory term, so a decision should come by the end of December. Then contract negotiations, financial close and only then design. The Outer Port, declared since 2019 a project of national importance, is entering the phase in which for the first time it has a concrete partner, concrete numbers and concrete questions. For Gdynia, which in recent years has watched Gdańsk take over the Baltic's ocean-going traffic, this is the moment that decides whether the port takes part in that game or watches it.