Page 36 - Port of Hamburg | Brochure | Port of Hamburg Magazine 2.2020

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36 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | September 2020
© HHM Dietmar Hasenpusch
© HHM / Lengenfelder
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Vietnam – Dynamic trading partner for
the Port of Hamburg
The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement came into force on 1 August. Trade between the Port of Hamburg and Vietnam has already increased in recent years and should now grow further. Setting a new record, 106,000 standard containers (TEU) were transported between Hamburg and Vietnam in 2019. This increase of 15 percent on the previous year was thanks to the direct services that carriers now offer on this trade route.
The Free Trade Agreement now coming into force promises to trigger new market incentives that will result in higher transport volume between the markets. Customs barriers are to be eliminated with that aim. That applies particularly to merchandise from Europe, on which 99 percent of all duties should be abolished within ten years. As the agreement comes into force, the EU for its part will reduce duties on 84 percent of Vietnamese products to nil, and within seven years that should
be the case for 99 percent of duties.
Unfamiliar export hits
from Hamburg
The Port of Hamburg is Germany’s largest universal port, making Hamburg one of the world’s largest trading centres. Its excellent geographical location makes the port a top foreign trade hub, not just for the Federal Republic, but also for other countries. Hamburg companies annually supply goods worth nearly 50 billion euros to other countries. These include five outstanding export hits that are unknown or barely known to some people. Apart from an automatic nozzle through which petrol only flows until a tank is full, top ex- port goods include sophisticated writing instruments. Based in Hamburg, the Mont Blanc company has been selling particularly exclusive fountain pens all over the world since 1906. It is also impossible nowadays to imagine the world without the chip card that a Hamburgian, Jürgen Dethloff, helped to develop. Every credit or health insurance card contains an integrated memory chip. The 2015 campaign ‘St Pauli pees back’ bred an ex- tremely water-repellent anti-urine lacquer that has also been applied to building walls in Berlin, San Francisco and on Majorca. Yet the top slot among somewhat unfamiliar export hits is occupied by baby soothers, another item in heavy demand internationally. These rubber dummies were developed by two Hamburgians and launched on the market in
1956.