The paper provides an overview of China’s relations with Poland in the context of the New Silk Road (NSR) as well as Łódź’s benefits form the One Belt One Road (OBOR). China has rapidly expanded the extent of its interactions with Poland since 2013 when it decided that the railway network should go through the shortest land connection of China to Western Europe. From the very beginning, Łódź was one of the most important points on the planned route. The article presents the key features of the city, while the case of the Łódź–Chengdu rail connection offers an insight into the region’s benefits from the NSR. The article concludes that although there have been positive changes in the economic situation of the Łódź region so far, there are still many areas of the Sino-Polish cooperation that seem crucial for the future of the OBOR.

Sustainable development (SD) is a key priority in EU policy, particularly in sectors with significant economic and environmental impacts, such as transport and storage. The influence of macroeconomic indicators, GDP per capita, unemployment rate, average wages, external balance of goods and services, and the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), on sustainability outcomes was analysed across 25 EU Member States, grouped into Western, Northern, Southern, and Central and Eastern Europe. The data from 2008–2023, analysed using fixed-effects panel models, ANOVA, and Scheffé tests, indicate regional differences in how macroeconomic indicators relate to sustainability performance. Unemployment and GDP per capita emerged as the most influential factors, though their effect varied by region, while HICP showed limited relevance. GDP per capita was particularly significant in Southern Europe. In contrast, environmental sustainability in Northern and Central and Eastern Europe appears driven mainly by nonmacroeconomic factors. Northern Europe achieved the highest sustainability scores, especially in the environmental dimension, whereas Southern Europe recorded the weakest performance overall. These findings highlight the need for region-specific strategies to support SD in the EU transport and storage sector.

The rapid growth in the volume of international container transport requires that the entire transport chain become more competitive, including maritime container terminals. The aim of the article is to identify the number and location of major Baltic container terminals and to perform a multi‑criteria analysis of the competitiveness of maritime container terminals in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). In our study, we perform the AHP multi‑criteria analysis with subjective criteria weights, as well as the entropy method with objective criteria weights. Thus, we can evaluate the competitive advantages of each of the specified terminals in the region. We are among the first to study the competitiveness of individual maritime container terminals in the BSR. Thus, our research adds to the literature that has yielded results on the competitive advantage of the Baltic seaports.