Containerterminals

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.

Around 50 companies from the port, transport and logistics sector in Hamburg and the region will be presenting their services under the joint “Gateway Hamburg” banner at transport logistic 2013, the world’s largest logistics trade fair being held in Munich from 4 to 7 June.

Only delivered at the end of February, the recently completed containership COSCO BELGIUM will be berthing in Hamburg on 11 April. Operating under the Hong Kong flag, this ULCC is 366 metres long, 51 metres wide and when fully loaded has a draft of 15.5 metres. She is the first of altogether eight 13,380 TEU (20-feet standard container) vessels ordered by COSCO from the Chinese NACKS shipyard in April 2008. Designed to fulfill the latest environmental standards, this series of newbuildings represents the largest ship type so far built by any shipyard in China.

On Monday night, the Santa Balbina will become the first ship from the new Femex 1 Mediterranean service to call at the HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB). The service will provide a direct weekly connection from Greece, Turkey, Malta and Morocco to Hamburg. It will consolidate the position of the French container shipping company CMA CGM in the Mediterranean and boost trade between this region and the Port of Hamburg. The Femex 1 service is sailed by vessels with a capacity of nearly 3,000 TEU. Next week, the Santa Balbina will be followed at Burchardkai by the Meta.

Infrastructural bottlenecks in port hinterland traffic are becoming increasingly acute, irrespective of the mode of transport, and are fuelling growing alarm among all the players involved. Such was the universal feeling at the parliamentary evening in Berlin organized by Port of Hamburg Marketing and attended by Peter Ramsauer, Germany’s Minister of Transport, and around 150 high-ranking representatives of the world of politics, business and trade associations.

Russia is the second-most important trading partner for the Port of Hamburg in terms of seaborne container handling. With a total volume of approx. 675,000 standard containers (TEU) handled between Hamburg and the Russian ports, the volume of container traffic was up by a further 13.3 per cent in 2012, consolidating the lead in foreign trade with Europe and overseas via Hamburg. This positive trend is also attributable to Russia’s decision to join the WTO, resulting in associated simplifications in commercial law as well as the dismantling of trade barriers.

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).