The project, which will extend the port by over 150 hectares, almost doubling its capacity, is to be financed by a private investor, who will take on the costs in exchange for a 30-year lease as the facility’s operator.

Sources cited by the Rzeczpospolita daily have suggested that security concerns are making it difficult to decide on a long-term partner because of the size of the port and the sensitive data on imports and exports the operator will have access to.

The decision on the investor has been put off for the fifth time. The problem, according to tender organizers who spoke to Rzeczpospolita, is that the most attractive offers are from Chinese bidders, who have become less desirable partners in recent years for Western projects.

The organizers fear that sensitive data could be fed back to Beijing’s intelligence services. Such is the sensitivity that the Baltic port’s authorities have recently rewritten leasing agreements with another Chinese company operating at the port to allow Polish security services more oversight.

There are four bids on the table for the expansion project, which is due to be completed by 2029. Its costs have shot up 20% from 4 to 5.5 billion zlotys (€1.2 billion).

The first entrant is from the French group Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments 4 SAS together with Gdynia Terminal Holding SAS. The second bidder is from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports, together with its British subsidiary, the Port of Felixstowe Limited.

The other two bids come from Filipino giant International Container Terminal and Chinese-Portuguese group Mota-Engil.