Port Inside

The Port of Hamburg has reason to look to the future with optimism. At 32.8 million tons, total seaborne cargo throughput for the first three months of 2013 put the Port of Hamburg back on a growth course. The trend in bulk cargo handling, especially, fuelled the increase in seaborne cargo handling: In the first quarter of the year a total of 10.1 million tons of bulk cargoes were handled in Hamburg, corresponding to an increase of 6.3 percent.

In 2012 the Port of Hamburg’s seaborne cargo throughput reached 130.9 million tons (- 1.0 percent). General cargo throughput at 91.5 million tons was just below the previous year‘s (- 1.2 percent). Bulk cargo throughput at 39.4 million tons (- 0.4 percent) also remained just below the 2011 total. At 8.9 million TEU (20-ft standard containers) in 2012 total container handling predominating in Hamburg was slightly lower (- 1.7 percent).

The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Deutsche Telekom, and SAP are jointly starting a logistics IT solution designed to link up port-based companies, partners, and customers more closely. The "Smart Port Logistics" pilot project has resulted in a comprehensive IT platform that incorporates mobile applications, or "apps", and thus makes it possible for traffic information and port-related services to be accessed from mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

In the first six months of 2012 the Port of Hamburg reported total throughput of 65.8 million tons (up 2.7 percent). At 45 million tons or 4.4 million TEU (20-ft standard containers), the container throughput that predominates in Hamburg as a universal port achieved a gain of 1.9 percent. The reason for this relatively modest growth was the total for empty containers, whereas throughput of loaded containers grew up by 4.7 percent to 3.8 million TEU. Weaker growth rates compared to the 2011 first half are explained by the unusually strong growth achieved at that time.

In the newly published 2012 edition of the Port of Hamburg Handbook, Port of Ham-burg Marketing again presents an overview of the port’s capabilities on a total of 136 pages. The current edition, published in both German and English, provides business partners and friends of the Port of Hamburg with interesting and useful information about the wide range of efficient services offered by what are mainly SMEs operating in Hamburg’s seaport-related industries and in the partner ports within the region.

The Port of Hamburg regains market shares and foresees a positive annual balance on total seaborne cargo throughput

In 2011 Germany’s largest universal port achieved a seaborne cargo throughput totalling 132.2 million tons that represents an increase of 9.1 percent. Container throughput in 2011 totalled 9 million 20-feet standard containers (TEU), or 1.12 million TEU more than in 2010. Of all ports in the North European Range, in 2011 Hamburg therefore achieved the fastest absolute growth in container throughput.