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

Ltd. (CHIPOLBROK), a joint shipping company organized in 1950. Although the original agreement specified equal partnership and control, a subsequent agreement was signed in November 1966 whereby the People's Republic of China acquired the controlling interest - 51%. These ships do not participate in PLO's operations in Polish seaborne trade.

PZM has a 10,180-d.w.t. dry-cargo ship (Mickiewicz) on time charter to the Korean-Polish Shipbrokers Company, Ltd. (CHOPOLSHIP), a joint shipping company formed in November 1966 and headquartered in Pyongyang, North Korea. Although the Mickiewicz reportedly was purchased outright by North Korea in September 1970, it still flies the Polish flag and moves regularly from North Korea to North Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan.

By mid-1972 PLO was operating 32 lines serving 40 routes worldwide. Of these, 23 lines function under PLO exclusively, and the rest operate jointly with other Communist and non-Communist steamship companies, i.e., INDOPOL (Poland and India), BALTAFRICA (Poland and East Germany), UNIAFRICA and BALTAMERICA (Poland, East Germany, and USSR), and CUBALCO (Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Cuba). Polish ships call at major world ports, carrying such cargoes as coal and coke, sugar, grain, timber, cement, ores, petroleum, fertilizers, rolled steel, trucks, metals and metal products, machinery and equipment, rubber, and textiles. In 1971 the country's seaborne foreign trade amounted to about 30.7 million metric tons, almost 47% of which was transported in domestic bottoms.

Poland's Five Year Plan (1971-75) calls for expansion of the merchant fleet to 3.5 million d.w.t. with the aim of transporting two-thirds of the country's total seaborne foreign trade. Planned additions to the fleet are to concentrate primarily on bulk cargo ships for PZM (58 ships, 1.5 million d.w.t.). PLO is scheduled to receive 44 ships (327,000 d.w.t.), and the major function of their operations is to improve and modernize existing services. This acquired tonnage (about 1.8 million d.w.t.) is to come from both domestic and foreign shipyards. Meanwhile, disposals would account for about 860,000 d.w.t.

One of the most significant factors contributing to the growth of the Polish merchant marine is the rapidly expanding domestic shipbuilding industry. The industry is not only meeting the program for the expanding domestic fleet but it is also building a number of ships for foreign owners. Prior to 1971 the greater part (59%, 55% in 1970) of the deadweight tonnage produced in Polish shipyards went to the USSR. In 1971 the situated changed, and the USSR received only 13% of the annual output. This downward trend appears to be continuing, since only 7% of the tonnage completed by 31 October 1971 was destined for the USSR. Poland's shipbuilding industry, almost nonexistent in 1946, now ranks 13th among the shipbuilding nations of the world, producing 1.9% of total world ship production. Polish shipyard production of merchant and fishing vessels over 1,000 g.r.t. in 1971 was as follows:

NOTE - G.R.T. and D.W.T. figures are in thousands.

Plans for expansion of the shipbuilding industry in the 1971-75 period call for about 350 ships totaling 3.6 million d.w.t. to be constructed for Polish (800,000 d.w.t.) and foreign owners. Most of these ships are to be series of completely new types of ships. By 1975 Gdansk is to be producing 3,600 d.w.t. factory super trawlers and 24,000-d.w.t. bulk carriers. Gdynia is to specialize in big bulk carriers and tankers, and the first Polish-built 100,000-d.w.t. ore/bulk/oil career (OBO) was to be launched in April 1973. The yard's future production is to comprise chiefly bulk carriers up to 400,000 d.w.t. and tankers ranging from 20,0000 to 25,000 d.w.t. Szczecin is to build the prototype of a roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) trailership for PLO operation in the Baltic and North Seas. In addition, Poland is to continue to purchase modern ships from abroad. As of 31 October the merchant marine

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