The investments planned for this year in Szczecin Industrial Park are worth PLN 17 million. They have been subsidized with PLN 5.6 million from the Regional Operational Programme, under the project focused on enhancing the attractiveness of Szczecin Industrial Park.

 

The modernization works are well under way and they are scheduled to be completed in October. The production buildings have been refurbished; works are in progress on the electric power transmission and heating system infrastructure, internal roads and the railway depot. The largest investment on the site – reconstruction of the amenity building for the employees of the companies headquartered in the area - began in mid-May. After the project is finalized more dressing room cubicles will be available, which – according to the statement made by the management of Szczecin Industrial Park – will make it possible to take on more offshore lessees, thus translating into new hires and an overall growth of the Park. The Park will also soon close the tender procedure related to purchase of equipment for the steel machining centre.

 

That is not all. The investment plans for years 2016-2017 include undertakings worth PLN 25 million - inter alia, wharf repairs and further modernization of production buildings and industrial gas supply systems. “Our programmes are ambitious. Considering the years of neglect, our needs are great too", says Grzegorz Huszcz, the president of Szczecin Industrial Park. The funds will be derived from the new quotas of EU funds and from the Park’s own resources.

 

Lessees are growing in numbers as well. Currently there are 52 companies – usually small entities half of which operate in the ship building industry – with employment at the level of circa 2,000 persons. The coastal area has been fully leased and the Park takes bookings for more ships.

 

Nevertheless, the management board members are losing sleep over what to do with the barge wharf located next to Wulkan slip-way. The problem is that Szczecin Industrial Park cannot manage it freely, because it does not have the right to, since at present the barge wharf is owned by the Ministry of Treasury. In mid-April Szczecin Harbour Master Office closed the wharf on administrative grounds – title deeds to two plots of land being part of the wharf went missing, and they were needed in order to alter the tenure and make it possible for large vessels to moor there.

 

“After Porty Holding became bankrupt nobody was interested in putting the legal status of those plots in order”, says Grzegorz Huszcz. Now Szczecin Industrial Park is forced to apply to Szczecin Harbour Master Office for consent each time a vessel is to moor there. The barge wharf is needed for the loading of steel structures produced in Szczecin Industrial Park, but it has happened in the past that Szczecin Harbour Master Office did not grant its consent and the ship had to be sent to the competition.

 

“We intend to apply for perpetual usufruct – we have already secured the required technical expert opinions – but the title deed to land must be presented to the authorities first. The documents need to be recovered, there is no two ways about it”, concludes Grzegorz Huszcz. Szczecin Industrial Park has recently submitted an application to the local authorities for changing the business use of the wharf. 

 

AK