ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF LOGISTIC CAPACITIES OF POLAND'S LARGEST SEAPORTS IN TERMS OF MANAGEMENT

One of the key factors for competitiveness in the international maritime sector, and for the quality of service and acquisition of new clients for seaport services, is the logistic capacity of seaports, which requires continuous development of seaport infrastructure. The need to respond to the growing demand related to the increasing volume of cargo handling in seaports leads to improved capacity and accessibility of the seaport infrastructure and suprastructure. The purpose of this paper is to determine the role and position of Polish seaports in the supply chains on international trade markets. The study included major Polish multipurpose seaports - Port of Gdansk, Port of Gdynia, and Szczecin and Swinoujscie Seaports. The following statistical tests were used in the study: Mann-Whitney U test for comparing two groups, and Kruskal-Wallis test by rank for comparing more than two groups. The analysis of correlation between two numeric variables was performed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient; the significance of Spearman's correlation was tested using the t-test. The results of the study provide a classification of Polish seaports which play a crucial role for Poland's national economy. The obtained results indicate that the volumes of container handling in the Polish seaports increased in the analysed period, i.e. the value of handling grew with time. This classification makes it possible to specify the advantages and disadvantages of the analysed seaports, and to determine the profile of their operations.