The Transformation of the Port Industry Plants with the Aim of Increasing the Importance of Services. Case Studies
The Transformation of the Port Industry Plants with the Aim of Increasing the Importance of Services. Case Studies

Summary/Abstract: A traditional group of port industry plants which operate in seaports, including thebiggest Polish seaports, is made up of the plants importing cheap raw materials by sea.With a direct access to sea transport they use the so-called “scale effect”. Since the commencementof the system transformation in Poland these plants have been undergoingorganizational, proprietary and functional alterations. One of the most important directionsof these changes has been an increase in the importance of services in the functioningof the plants. What is manifest in the case of the fertilizer companies from Police, Gdańskand Szczecin is that they have been developing their services in order to meet both theirindividual and external entities’ needs, although their industrial operations are still predominant.However, the remaining plants situated in the Polish seaports and analyzed inthis article have changed their business activity from industrial operations to services.They have gradually abandoned production and replaced the handling which was carriedout solely to meet their individual needs with the development of services provided toexternal customers and new merchandise. This process has been taking place in relationto the Baltchem, the Siarkopol Gdańsk and the formerly operational Huta Szczecin. It is reasonable to predict that in the future the Polish port industry sector will exhibit growingtendencies towards the increasing importance of:– services complimentary to industrial operations,– services provided to external entities,– situation in which external investors, primarily in the services sector, will operateon the port land which is not used by the ports in order to meet their individualneeds,– replacing industrial operations with services.

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