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the minor ports of local importance - Kolobrzeg, Darlowo, Ustka, Wladyslawowo, Jastarnia, and Hel. In 1971, the major ports, which are of essential importance to the national economy and foreign trade exchange, handled 37.3 million metric tons, mostly bulk goods such as coal, coke, ores, timber, and grain. Szczecin/Swinoujscie had the largest turnover (17.3 million tons) followed by Gdansk (10 million tons) and Gdynia (9.7 million tons).

Szczecin, situated on the Oder nearly 40 miles from the Baltic Sea and close to East Germany, is Poland's largest port and serves both maritime and inland-waterway traffic. It is the principal outlet for coal and manufactured products from the important Upper Silesian industrial region. The principal industries allied with port operations are iron-ore smelting, shipbuilding and repair, marine engineering, and plants for producing artificial fibers, fertilizers, sulfuric acid, and paper.

Swinoujscie, at the sea entrance of the waterway channel to Szczecin, is important as a port for handling bulk cargoes (Figure 7), for being able to accommodate deep-draft ships that cannot proceed to Szczecin, and as a naval base and fishing port. Regular automobile and passenger ferry service is maintained between the port and Ystad, Sweden.

The Szczecin/Swinoujscie complex has been greatly expanded to ensure greater handling capacity, improvement of the quality of port services, acceleration of ship turnarounds, and the creation of facilities for handling large bulk carriers. A new approach channel has been dredged to make the port complex accessible to ships to 35 feet draft and up to 55,000 deadweight tons (d.w.t.) Because it is strategically close to Baltic outlets (the Kiel Canal and the Danish Straits) and has excellent surface transportation connections with the inland industrial regions of Poland and Central Europe, the port complex is an important asset of the Soviet-oriented countries.

Gdynia and Gdańsk form a loosely knit conurbation in north-central Poland, extending for some 20 miles from the northern limit of the former to the southern limit of the latter. Gdynia, Poland's major general-cargo port, is located on the southwestern shore of the Gulf of Danish and is protected from the north by a large peninsula (Mierzeja Helska); Gdansk is a short distance southeast at the mouth of a branch of the Vistula rive. These two ports serve Polish foreign trade on a coordinated basis; both handle incoming iron ore and outgoing coal, and both have shipyards.

At Gdynia, containers have been handled as a matter of routine for several years; 100 large 20-foot units are now in use, and construction is soon to start on a full-time container base. In the interim a temporary container facility, equipped with a special 34-ton-capacity crane, is capable of handling up to 300 containers daily. New equipment for the transfer of bulk goods has been obtained. Two highly efficient floating elevators for the transfer of alumina have been obtained from West Germany, and new equipment for the rapid transfer of coal and coke has been installed. Existing storage space is being expanded, and the port's rail and road systems are being reconstructed.

At Gdansk, a new facility for the transfer of phosphates (Figure 8) and a new base for the export of sulphur are in operation and can accommodate ships of 30,000 d.w.t. The installations are modern and fully mechanized, providing a large handling capacity and rapid transfer between ship-storage areas and rail cars. In addition, other quays in the port have been reconstructed and equipped with new cranes from Finland and West Germany.

The first stage of the largest deepwater port in Poland, Polnocny, a new outport for Gdansk, is under construction and should be completed by 1976. Plans call for this new facility to handle about 11 million metric tons of cargo annually - 5 million tons of coal and 6 million tons of petroleum products. The port will be capable of handling ships up to 120,000 d.w.t.

Polish ports are adequate for normal shipping requirements and could be of considerable military importance. New heavy-duty equipment makes the system adaptable for shuttling military shipments across the Baltic Sea from USSR ports.

Polish port administrations are under the control of the Ministry of Shipping. Naval bases and military ports are under the jurisdiction of the Polish Navy.

Details of the major ports are given in Figure 9.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070025-1