Osmanų imperijos generalinio konsulato Gdanske parengta ataskaita apie Baltijos jūros uostų prekybą 1863 m. | A Report Prepared by the Consulate General of the Ottoman Empire in Gdansk on the Trade by the Baltic Sea Ports in 1863

Efficient logistics is a key factor in the competitiveness of seaports, especially in regions such as the Baltic Sea, where ports play important roles as hubs in the European Union’s Trans-European transport network (TEN-T). However, there are a lack of comprehensive studies focusing on the logistics efficiency of Baltic Sea ports, especially those integrating technical and technological factors. This study aimed to assess changes in the logistics efficiency of 15 major ports in the Baltic Sea region between 2019 and 2023, taking into account the technological and infrastructure-related elements that influence port performance. The model developed by the authors integrates the nearest neighbour method for cluster identification, data envelopment analysis using the Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (DEA-BCC) model to assess the overall technical, pure technical, and scale logistics efficiency, and spatial autocorrelation analysis to explore spatial interactions. For the DEA-BCC model, constraints were defined for each port based on inputs (number and length of berths) and outputs (cargo and container volumes for 2019–2023). The spatial autocorrelation analysis examined the relationships among the Baltic Sea ports, container volumes, and logistic efficiency values derived from the DEA model. Recognizing the sensitivity of the weight matrix in previous studies, this paper introduced an enhanced two-factor weighting matrix that incorporated geographical distance and the port connectivity index, calculated by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The statistical reliability of the results was validated using z-scores and p-values. The results showed that the overall technical efficiency of the ports analysed during the period considered was 47.2%, the pure technical efficiency was 61.0%, and the average scale efficiency was around 76%, indicating that diminishing returns to scale dominated. The spatial analysis showed a strong correlation between port connectivity and efficiency, indicating that well-connected ports, such as Gdańsk and Gdynia, had a higher efficiency. The findings make a significant contribution to the understanding of the logistics efficiency of Baltic Sea ports and highlights the importance of regional cooperation, infrastructure improvements, and better connectivity strategies to improve the overall efficiency of seaports in the region.

The Baltic Sea is facing exceptionally intensive marine traffic. Oil products in addition to other cargo types are being transported in this marine area. Therefore, the risk of potential oil pollution is very high. Although, the Baltic Sea has not experienced catastrophic oil spills, there have been spills causing serious environmental damage in the region. Construction of oil terminals and planned growth of Russian oil export through Baltic Sea ports along with the operation of large oil enterprises and oil drilling platforms make maritime safety a priority task for the Baltic Sea region. The publications collected in present Baltica Journal Special Issue set sights on the improvement of oil spill management in the South–Eastern Baltic Sea as well as stimulate the appearance of new transnational response agreements in the region.

Many changes have appeared in year 2015. In Europe economic malaise has continued since debt crisis started in year 2010, and although its effects on Northern Europe have started to diminish, new economic dark clouds have appeared through sanctions set by both European Union and Russia to each other during year 2014. Together with these, shipping sector has been under pressure due to strict sulphur regulation implemented from early 2015 onwards in the entire Baltic Sea Region. Due to these factors, sea ports at Baltic Sea have been under pressure during the first months of 2015, this particularly concerning container handling. Based on our regression model forecast, Estonia and Port of Tallinn shall have clearly declining container handling year ahead. However, overall handling at sea port is not so easy to forecast.

This paper presents an overview of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities development in the Baltic Sea. The value of the paper lies in its seek to demonstrate how the process of interaction between the shipping and energy networks unfolds through infrastructural developments of ports. The analysis is based on mapping, cartographic and spatial contextual methods. The mapping of gas supply networks, LNG facilities and traffic patterns establish the originality of this research. It shows that factors motivating the development of LNG terminals in the Baltic ports come from areas of energy and maritime policy. Moreover, in future, the emerging LNG infrastructure may have an effect on port competition in the Baltic Sea Region.

Russia’s Baltic provinces and Finland differed from Russia’s interior areas due to their long coastline. On the one hand, it helped to connect those areas, but on the other hand, the Baltic Sea played a crucial role in connecting Russia to Europe. In 1837–70, 16 passenger steamboat routes had been established that called at Estonian ports. Due to Estonia’s geographical position, entrepreneurs from Turku, Riga and St Petersburg as well as from Tallinn operated those lines. With the exception of studies on migration policies, the roles of institutions and legislation have not been addressed in depth in maritime history studies. Therefore this article focuses on the following questions: how legislation impacted the establishment of steamboat companies, and how the state organised steamboat traffic.
 Steamship companies were the first transportation organisations to operate as joint-stock enterprises. Joint-stock laws started developing in Russia in the first decades of the 19th century. The first legislation regulating steamship companies that operated between Baltic Sea ports was adopted in 1835. A comprehensive act regulating all joint-stock companies followed in 1836. According to the 1836 law, which was in force until 1917, the establishment of a joint-stock company depended a great deal on the state. Both the tsar and the Ministry of Finance had to approve the company statutes. Both had the right to make changes in the statute’s clauses or in proposals for capital formation. The Grand Duchy of Finland followed its own separate path. Joint-stock companies in Finland were exempted from this legislation until 1864 because Finland adhered to the Swedish Law of Entrepreneurship and Shipping from the 18th century. Due to those circumstances, personal relations and the company’s own contribution played a key role in joint-stock companies.
 Statutes approved by the Ministry of Finance and the tsar provided companies with the opportunity to apply for benefits and prerogatives like tax relief or monopoly rights for certain routes for fixed time periods. Such various supportive measures were highlighted to foster the development of steamship connections on routes of national importance. The state could take part in the establishment process as well, as the case of the Osilia steamship company demonstrates. In cases where there was insufficient establishing capital, and to encourage the establishment of companies, the state bought a certain number of stocks in the company.
 Russian merchant shipping legislation and organisation was introduced for the first time in contemporary Estonia at the beginning of the 18th century after the Great Northern War, whereby Estonian territory was incorporated into Russia. The organisation of both merchant and passenger shipping was divided between different authorities in Russia. The aim of establishment ministries in the first decade of the 19th century was to set up a system where tasks were clearly divided and unambiguous. In reality, this goal was not put into practice for the whole system. Hence merchant shipping was still divided between the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Navy, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in addition local authorities. Local authorities became the link between the companies and state authorities because they were familiar with local circumstances and could provide consultative information.

Motives: Seaports are key nodes in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), handling a significant part of the European Union’s trade and freight transport. Baltic Sea ports, including those in Poland, have gained strategic importance due to their high growth rates and intense maritime traffic. Aim: This article examines the economic role of Baltic Sea ports under changing geopolitical conditions. It proposes two hypotheses: one on the relationship between economic growth and port cargo turnover, and the other on the strengthening positions of Baltic ports as key logistics hubs. The study analyzes statistical data on port cargo turnover, functional models, and classifications using Pearson’s correlation and structural analysis. Results: The main conclusions highlight the strengthening positions of Baltic Sea ports despite current challenges, emphasizing the need for further infrastructure development and service quality improvement. This article contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive analysis of the role of Baltic Sea ports, taking into account current geopolitical and economic factors, and by proposing an approach for assessing their current status and development prospects. The results are potentially useful for strategic planning in maritime transport.

The pole tide/14-month oscillations in the Baltic Sea during the 19th and 20th centuries: Spatial and temporal variations

Decarbonization of ship power plants and reduction of harmful emissions has become a priority in the technological development of maritime transport, including ships operating in seaports. Engines fueled by diesel without using secondary emission reduction technologies cannot meet MARPOL 73/78 Tier III regulations. The MEPC.203 (62) EEDI directive of the IMO also stipulates a standard for CO2 emissions. This study presents the results of research on ecological parameters when a CAT 3516C diesel engine is replaced by a dual-fuel (diesel-liquefied natural gas) powered Wartsila 9L20DF engine on an existing seaport tugboat. CO2, SO2 and NOx emission reductions were estimated using data from the actual engine load cycle, the fuel consumption of the KLASCO-3 tugboat, and engine-prototype experimental data. Emission analysis was performed to verify the efficiency of the dual-fuel engine in reducing CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions of seaport tugboats. The study found that replacing a diesel engine with a dual-fuel-powered engine led to a reduction in annual emissions of 10% for CO2, 91% for SO2, and 65% for NOx. Based on today’s fuel price market data an economic impact assessment was conducted based on the estimated annual fuel consumption of the existing KLASCO-3 seaport tugboat when a diesel-powered engine is replaced by a dual-fuel (diesel-natural gas)-powered engine. The study showed that a 33% fuel costs savings can be achieved each year. Based on the approved methodology, an ecological impact assessment was conducted for the entire fleet of tugboats operating in the Baltic Sea ports if the fuel type was changed from diesel to natural gas. The results of the assessment showed that replacing diesel fuel with natural gas achieved 78% environmental impact in terms of NOx emissions according to MARPOL 73/78 Tier III regulations. The research concludes that new-generation engines on the market powered by environmentally friendly fuels such as LNG can modernise a large number of existing seaport tugboats, significantly reducing their emissions in ECA regions such as the Baltic Sea.

Baltic Seaports are a part of the sustainable global transport infrastructure. The main competitors of the Baltic countries in Baltic Sea region are the ports of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The ports of all three Baltic States are important transit corridors, connecting not only East and West, but also South and North. Periodical investments, modernization, and the construction of new terminals allow the Port of Klaipeda to successfully compete with neighbouring ports and strive for leadership positions. Thus, the aim of our study is to investigate the competitive environment of the Baltic Sea region. We use systematization, grouping, summarization of the scientific literature, data collection, comparison, financial analysis, and capacity calculation. The main results show that the Port of Klaipeda, a seaport on the eastern Baltic coast, is an important hub of the East-West (IXB) transport corridor, connecting roads and sea routes in this direction. With the accession of new members, including Lithuania, to the EU in 2004, the Baltic Sea became the internal Sea of the Union. Many Baltic seaports belong to the same system and organizations (ESPO, BPO). EU ports policy provides them with equal requirements for security, transport regulation, environmental protection, anti-air pollution, and sustainable development. The results obtained enable exploration perspectives. This includes a feasibility study for port development and attracting new investment from foreign capital markets in the Baltic Sea region.

Dramatic climate changes have occurred in the Baltic Sea region caused by changes in orbital movement in the earth–sun system and the melting of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet. Added to these longer-term changes, changes have occurred at all timescales, caused mainly by variations in large-scale atmospheric pressure systems due to competition between the meandering midlatitude low-pressure systems and high-pressure systems. Here we follow the development of climate science of the Baltic Sea from when observations began in the 18th century to the early 21st century. The question of why the water level is sinking around the Baltic Sea coasts could not be answered until the ideas of postglacial uplift and the thermal history of the earth were better understood in the 19th century and periodic behavior in climate related time series attracted scientific interest. Herring and sardine fishing successes and failures have led to investigations of fishery and climate change and to the realization that fisheries themselves have strongly negative effects on the marine environment, calling for international assessment efforts. Scientists later introduced the concept of regime shifts when interpreting their data, attributing these to various causes. The increasing amount of anoxic deep water in the Baltic Sea and eutrophication have prompted debate about what is natural and what is anthropogenic, and the scientific outcome of these debates now forms the basis of international management efforts to reduce nutrient leakage from land. The observed increase in atmospheric CO2 and its effects on global warming have focused the climate debate on trends and generated a series of international and regional assessments and research programs that have greatly improved our understanding of climate and environmental changes, bolstering the efforts of earth system science, in which both climate and environmental factors are analyzed together. Major achievements of past centuries have included developing and organizing regular observation and monitoring programs. The free availability of data sets has supported the development of more accurate forcing functions for Baltic Sea models and made it possible to better understand and model the Baltic Sea–North Sea system, including the development of coupled land–sea–atmosphere models. Most indirect and direct observations of the climate find great variability and stochastic behavior, so conclusions based on short time series are problematic, leading to qualifications about periodicity, trends, and regime shifts. Starting in the 1980s, systematic research into climate change has considerably improved our understanding of regional warming and multiple threats to the Baltic Sea. Several aspects of regional climate and environmental changes and how they interact are, however, unknown and merit future research.

Despite most tankers being more technically safe than in the past, the increasing volume of transportation probably outweighs most, if not all, technical safety gains. Two major types of threats to the Baltic Sea environment caused by oil pollution are discussed in this chapter: accidental and intentional spills. It is shown that individual countries or coalitions have influenced governance outcomes in both areas. The introduction of double hull regulations by IMO was speeded up significantly by unilateral action taken by the USA and the EU. The move towards differentiated port controls has probably increased efficiency since it has made it possible to target substandard vessels. The Paris MoU has been important in ensuring coherent inspection practices. Intentional oil spills typically result from unlawful cleaning of tanks and engine rooms at sea. Flight surveillance and the No-Special-Fee system have been adopted to reduce oil spills. However, both mechanisms suffer from weaknesses caused by differences in countries’ capacities and priorities. Flight surveillance intensity differs significantly among HELCOM member states, which makes it possible for tankers to avoid detection. The No-Special-Fee system has been only partially effective, due to varying interests and capacities of individual Baltic Sea countries, port authorities and ports.

The Baltic Sea has become a strategic energy corridor for Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. It illustrates the dual challenge of maintaining short-term energy security while advancing long-term decarbonization. This paper investigates the role of Polish ports as critical nodes in this transformation. Using a qualitative and exploratory research design that combines policy analysis, secondary data, and case studies of oil, gas, and offshore wind facilities, the study shows how large ports consolidate their roles as gateways for fossil fuel diversification, while smaller ports are integrated into the offshore wind supply chain as service and maintenance bases. The analysis highlights the interdependence between European and national policy frameworks (REPowerEU, TEN-E, PEP2040) and port development, demonstrating how institutional conditions shape infrastructural resilience. At the same time, geopolitical risks and subsea vulnerabilities underline the necessity of treating ports as critical infrastructure requiring reinforced protection. The paper concludes that Polish ports act simultaneously as guarantors of immediate energy resilience and enablers of renewable transition, positioning the Baltic Sea as a cornerstone of Europe’s evolving energy architecture.

Abstract. The spatial averaged correlations are presented in 1.5° × 1.5° bins for the North and Baltic Sea region. The averaged correlations are computed based on the proxy ocean data generated by the operational forecast model of Danish Meteorology Institute (DMI). It is shown that the spatial distribution of the averaged correlations could reflect the overall influence of the local atmospheric forcing, complex topography, coastlines, boundary and bottom effect, etc. Comparisons with the satellite SST data demonstrate that the proxy ocean data reproduce realistic results at the surface. Based on the spatial bin-averaged correlations, a general correlation model is assumed to approximate the spatial and temporal correlation structure. Parameters of the correlation model are obtained on the standard Levitus levels. It is found that the correlation model is not the typical Guaussian-type function. For instance, the exponents of the correlation model vary in the longitudinal direction from 0.75 at the surface to 1.33 at the depth of 250 m for temperature. For salinity, the temporal correlation can be approximated with an exponential function. Two complementary quality-indicators, effective coverage rate and "explained" variance, are defined based on the correlation models obtained above. The two indicators are able to identify the "influence area" of the information content in a given observation network and the relative importance of observations at different locations. By these indicators, the 3-D temperature and salinity observational networks are assessed in the Baltic Sea and North Sea for the period 2004–2006. It is found that the surface level is more effectively covered than the deep waters with existing networks. In addition, the Belt Sea and the Baltic Proper also show good coverage for both temperature and salinity. However, more observations are required in the Norwegian Trench and Kattegat. In the vertical, the two indicators show smaller values from 50 m to 125 m in this region, indicating the need for more observations.

Decadal sea level variations in selected stations located in the southwestern, central and eastern Baltic Sea are found to be less coherent in the 19th century than in the 20th century. The effect of the North Atlantic sea level-pressure (SLP), precipitation and air-temperature in the 19th and 20th centuries from gridded climate reconstructions, and their relationship to Baltic Sea level, are statistically analysed to explain this difference. The influence of these factors on sea level varies geographically. In the central and eastern Baltic, Sea level variations are well described by SLP alone, whereas in the southern Baltic Sea area-averaged precipitation better explains the decadal sea level variations. The evolution of precipitation in the 19th century could explain the different behaviour of the southern Baltic stations; however, the physical mechanism for this relationship remains unclear. The effect of temperature variations is either already contained in the SLP field or is less important for decadal sea level variations than the other two factors.

Resource sustainability and challenges: Status and competitiveness of international trade in licorice extracts under the Belt and Road Initiative