With its planned westward expansion, the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) will be completing the extension of the facilities of Hamburg’s EUROGATE Container Terminal. The planning permission documents for the expansion were made public today. The publication had been scheduled for the end of Hamburg’s summer holidays, with a view to ensuring that the information would be as comprehensive and transparent as possible. ‘This expansion is important for Hamburg, for the Port and for our container logistics here. It will have structurally advantageous effects, and it also sends a positive signal to the labour markets. It underlines the importance to Eurogate of the location. In the current economic climate, the decision in favour of Hamburg is a very welcome one,’ commented Axel Gedaschko, Hamburg’s Senator for Labour and Economics.

With a view to the extension of the EUROGATE Container Terminal to the northwest, HPA is making all necessary provisions on an area of 38 hectares at the Waltershof harbour. A quay wall 1,059 metres in length and a highly efficient goods handling system will make it possible for additional goods to the amount of two million 20-foot standard containers or TEUs (TEU = Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) to be handled annually. As a result of the western expansion, EUROGATE will be increasing the capacity of the container terminal to a total of six million TEUs per annum.

In the year 2008 container goods passing through the Port of Hamburg came to 9.7 million TEUs. The Institut für Seeverkehrswirtschaft und Logistik (ISL) [Marine Transport and Logistics Institute] has published a long-term forecast in which it estimates the port’s growth potential at 18.1 million TEUs. Even if in view of the economic situation the increase should not be altogether linear, the future growth of shipments in the Hanseatic City can be expected to resume in keeping with worldwide developments. The planning permission documents for the planned expansion were made public today. With regard to the legitimate interests of Hamburg’s civic population, publication was scheduled for the end of the summer holidays so as to ensure the greatest possible transparency of information.

The fundamental mechanisms which lead to globalisation and the international division of labour have not been cancelled or reversed by the current financial and economic crisis. ‘That is why it is important for us to act now, so as to be able to meet the coming turnaround of the economy with renewed strength and by starting from the best possible position,’ emphasised Jens Meier.

The plans envisage berths on the new quay wall for two large-scale container ships and a feeder ship. The additional terminal area in Waltershof arises in part from the filling of the petroleum harbour and restructuring of the site in terms of use. By partially cutting back the eastern point of land, HPA is furthermore increasing the turning area in a southerly direction from the former diameter of 480 metres to 600 metres. This means that in future even the biggest container ships of the latest generation will have sufficient room for turning manoeuvres in the western Port.

‘Besides the increase in container capacity from 2015 on, the westward expansion means that the EUROGATE Container Terminal will have an increased crane load capacity, so that it will be well equipped for future generations of ships and new goods handling technology,’ said Peter Zielinski, Managing Director of EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg. ‘This will help to maintain the Port of Hamburg’s competitiveness in relation to other ports.’ The company is investing 250 million euros in the suprastructure of the new terminal area, while HPA and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg are financing the essential construction measures for the project.

These investments also stand to benefit down-stream branches of industry – like freight forwarding companies and suppliers. Between 2001 and 2008 the number of jobs indirectly linked with the Port throughout Germany increased from 220,000 to 276,000; jobs in the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg showed a similar increase, from 145,000 to 167,000. In Hamburg itself the number of jobs depending on the port rose from 125,000 in 2001 to 143,000 in 2008. Over the same period, the number of jobs in Hamburg depending on container transport alone increased from 75,000 to over 100,000. This means that container-related jobs already come to 70 percent of all port-dependent jobs in the city. In addition, EUROGATE’s investments in Hamburg as a location will contribute in the long term to an increase in the revenue from port-related charges and taxes. Public investments in the expansion of the Port will pay off in terms of the funds that are recouped: tax revenues in Hamburg associated with the Port rose from 586 million euros in 2001 to 823 million in 2008.

www.westerweiterung.de

Hamburg Port Authority

Since 2005 the Hamburg Port Authority has been providing future-oriented port management services from a single source. As an institute under public law, HPA is responsible for the efficient, resource-saving and sustainable preparation and execution of infrastructure-related projects at the Port. HPA is the first point of contact for all questions relating to infrastructure by land and by sea, the safety of marine transport, the Port’s rail network, real estate management and economic conditions at the Port. To this end HPA provides all the necessary facilities, undertakes all sovereign tasks and carries out all services relevant to the Port economy. www.hamburg-port-authority.de

Press contact: HPA Hamburg Port Authority | Press office | Tel.: +49 40 42847-2300 | pressestelle@hpa.hamburg.de

EUROGATE

EUROGATE is Europe’s leading container terminal and logistics group. Together with Contship Italia, EUROGATE operates marine terminals on the North Sea, in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic, with outstanding connections to the European hinterland. With ten terminal locations and a volume of handled goods amounting to 14.2 million TEUs in 2008, EUROGATE is the European number one. Besides container handling EUROGATE offers all associated services, from cargomodal services to container warehousing and extending to container maintenance and repairs. Intermodal transport and logistics management, IT logistics solutions and specialised engineering services complete the picture.

www.eurogate.eu