Special Economic Zones in Szczecin

In August this year, the Polish Cabinet made the decision to expand the limits of the Kostrzyn-Słubice and Mielec Special Economic Zones to include land in Szczecin. Already by 2001 the city had the subzone of SEZ Euro-Park Mielec, which covered 73 hectares of land within 4 locations: on Struga St. (currently W. Szymborskiej St.), Lubczyńska-Kniewska St. and Trzebusz and Dunikowo. The extension involves a total of 58 hectares, and an estimated 2 thousand new jobs, opening up whole new opportunities for the region.

As a result of the extended SEZ, some major projects will take off, including Teleyard’s steel-structures plant, to be located in the Skolwin neighbourhood of Szczecin.

What’s more, Gryfia Island has been targeted for investment by Bilfinger Crist Offshore, a manufacturer of foundations for offshore wind farms.

The Cabinet’s decision brings the area of the SEZ land in Szczecin up to a total of over 130 hectares.

In 2012, three development areas situated on Szymborskiej St. with a total area of 4.6 hectares, were sold.

In March 2012, Garo Polska became the first company in Szczecin to obtain a business licence to operate within the SEZ. It built an electrical engineering plant on a 1.19 hectare plot of development land near Struga St. The entire investment project came at a cost of about PLN 7 million. The Garo Group’s Garo Polska has been present on the market since 2010. It is planning to hire some 120 people for its Szczecin plant. Its products include, but are not limited to, EV-charging stations, car-heating stations and electricity-distribution panels.

Another investor to have ventured into the Szczecin SEZ is the Szczecin-based Sanger Metal Sp. z o.o., which bought a 5-thousand-square-metre plot near Struga St. The company specialises in the manufacture of all kinds of load-lifting and securing equipment. On the property, the company is planning to build a 2500-square-metre manufacturing workshop with an office and an amenity section. The company is planning to put in some PLN 4 million and hire ca. 50 people by 2016. The manufacturing plant is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2014.

Early September saw the Szczecin-based company HKL Dekoracja Okien Sp. z o.o., the third and the largest investor to have entered the SEZ, finish the construction of a manufacturing workshop situated on a plot near Struga St. The 8,000-square-metre workshop and the office and amenity building were erected on an area of nearly 3 hectares. The company has committed some PLN 15 million to this project and is planning to hire a staff of more than 180. Its objective is to launch an innovative building-automation system designed specifically for indoor window coverings. This will be the first system of its kind on the Polish market.

Szczecin will certainly capitalise on the decision to extend the zones, as the extension will generate new projects – and these will create more jobs. It is estimated that a total of some PLN 26 million will be put into the 4.6-hectares SEZ. The zones are a major driver of the local industry culture, in that they help establish business clusters and foster the relationship between science and industry. What they also do is facilitate regional specialisations, which are particularly important for fulfilling the European Commission’s requirements regarding regional development strategies under the 2014-2020 financial framework. The SEZ are now some of the major attractors of investment, more often than not being crucial to foreign entrepreneurs’ decisions to venture into particular regions.