Poland's iconic Gdansk shipyards said on Thursday that they plan to recruit 600 employees over the coming two years as demand grows.

"We intend to take on 300 people by the end of this year and a further 300 next year," the shipyards' spokeswoman Aldona Dybuk told AFP.

The yards currently employ 1,700 staff.

"We have expanded our production range and our order-book has been filled up nicely in our three areas of work."

Besides building vessels, the shipyards also turn out wind turbines and industrial-scale steel parts for infrastructure such as bridges.

The shipyards are best-known internationally as the birthplace in 1980 of Solidarity, the trade union and opposition movement that fuelled the demise of Poland's communist regime nine years later.

After the command economy fell apart the shipyards struggled in the free market and were declared bankrupt in 1996.

After repeated attempted to restructure them, they were taken over in 2007 by Ukrainian investors who now own 75 percent.

The remaining 25 percent belongs to the Polish state.