The Baltic Sea Port of Lübeck

The port in Lübeck and Lübeck-Travemünde functions as an important link between Hamburg and the whole Baltic Sea region.Germany’s largest Baltic Sea port handles over 27 million metric tons (2010) of cargo annually and provides more than 100 departures per week to Scandinavia, Finland, Russia and the Baltic countries, as well as to the USA. Ferries and Ro-Ro traffic are particularly important.

As a distribution and logistics centre, the port specialises strongly in paper and forest products. Also trucks and trailer, containers, general cargo and bulk cargo are handled. The largest terminal operator is the Lübecker Hafen-Gesellschaft (www.lhg.com), which operates four cargo-handling terminals. Among them is the Terminal Scandinavienkai, Europe’s largest ferry terminal, which has nine berths and over 80 arrivals and departures per week. The terminal has been modernised and expanded extensively during the last few years.

The Container Terminal Lübeck (CTL) shows how closely Hamburg and Lübeck are linked: together with CTL, the HHLA Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (www.hhla.de) operates a terminal of its own on the Baltic coast, which is specialised in transferring cargo between railcars or trucks and feeder ships. Trains carry this transhipment cargo back and forth between Hamburg and Lübeck every day. This so-called Baltic Bridge reduces transport times for the Baltic region by up to 50 percent.