HHLA gains feeder services

The Port of Hamburg is further expanding its position as the leading hub for feeder services in Northern Europe. Close cooperation between shipping company American President Lines (APL) and the Team Lines feeder operator has enabled Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) to gain important feeder trades. The first feeder vessel on these restructured feeder services, the "Empire" of the shipping company APL, was handled by HHLA in Hamburg on Tuesday, 31 August.

From the end of August shipping companies Team Lines and APL are shifting some of their feeder services into the Baltic from Rotterdam to Hamburg. They are therefore concentrating these services in the Hanseatic port. APL is a subsidiary of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) of Singapore. Altogether Team Lines and APL will regularly be deploying four feederships on the routes between Hamburg as well as Bremerhaven, and Finland, Russia and Poland. With a slot capacity of 1,400 standard containers (TEU) each, when fully laden the feederships of the "Kiel-Canal-Max" class are just able to transit the Kiel Canal.

Dr. Stefan Behn, HHLA Executive Board member for the Container segment: "The decision by Team Lines and APL to concentrate their feeder trades in Hamburg underlines Hamburg’s position as the leading feeder hub in Northern Europe for the Baltic region. This is a landmark success for the Port of Hamburg."

Feeder trades are of great importance for the Port of Hamburg. Feederships or "feeders", collect containers reaching Hamburg on ships arriving from overseas at the terminals in the port, then transport them on to the recipient countries – and vice versa. On average, a containership discharged in Hamburg provides between 40 and 60 feederships with cargo. With around 60 feeder services, the Hanseatic city possesses Northern Europe’s densest and most efficient feeder and distribution network. Last year, it was just 45 services. A total of up to 160 feederships call the Port of Hamburg every week.

Volker Blöck, Managing Director (Germany) for the APL shipping company: "We have been persuaded by the operational achievements of the Port of Hamburg and its geographically favourable location. With Hamburg as the hub for transporting cargoes into the Baltic region, we are speeding up our feeder services and reducing costs. At a time when transport costs are rising again, that represents an enormous competitive advantage."

Søren Pedersen, Managing Director (Germany) for the Team Lines shipping company: "In response to requests from our customers, we are delighted to bring this new product to the market. Hamburg is an efficient port delivering high quality service. We are very pleased with the performance of Feeder Logistik Zentrale which is adding considerable value to the feeder activities of the port."

To optimize and speed up handling of feederships in Hamburg and at the same time cut costs for feeder shipping companies, this year HHLA invested along with Eurogate in building up a Feeder Logistik Zentrale (FLZ). Following Unifeeder as the first customer, Team Lines has also decided to handle feeder services through the FLZ. "This shows that even during the crisis, it has been right to invest in innovations such as the FLZ in order to further enhance the quality of container handling," said HHLA Executive Board member Dr. Behn. "With the FLZ we have succeeded in further curtailing turnaround time for feederships and boosting customer satisfaction."

In the restructured feeder services of Team Lines and APL from Hamburg as well as Bremerhaven, feederships will be calling at ports in Finland, Russia and Poland to fixed timetables from the end of August. Today, on Tuesday, 31 August, the first feedership on these new services, the "Empire" of the shipping company APL, is being handled by HHLA in Hamburg.