Page 19 - Hafen Hamburg | Port of Hamburg Magazine 4.2021

WORLD TRADE ■
hopes of a new volume record by year-end. Volumes have been growing steeply ever since 2019: the four additional THE Alliance Transatlantic services have established the USA in second place among Ham- burg’s top partner countries.
Hapag-Lloyd container shipping line has been direct- ly involved in this success. “After the steep decline at the start of the pandemic, North America posted a gradual recovery, which has massively accelerated since the second quarter of this year. Strong growth in the market is also reflected in both export and im- port volumes,” says Nils Haupt, Hapag-Lloyd’s Sen- ior Director Corporate Communications. Hap- ag-Lloyd fills a decisive role in the USA trade. The company is not only the leader in the trade between Hamburg and the USA. Handling an estimated two million standard containers in the last five years, seen overall Hapag-Lloyd also takes first place among the most important shipping companies for the Port of Hamburg.
The company calls 14 ports on the US East coast be- tween New York and Houston. On the West coast, it serves Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland in Cali- fornia, plus Seattle in Washington state. Most of these ports continue to be plagued by persistent ship
bottlenecks. Global supply chains under pressure, ter- minal closures in China at intervals and staff shortag- es cancellations due to sickness lie behind this. Hap- ag-Lloyd is also affected by ports overloads and ship blockages in the USA. Yet the company has been able to react flexibly, temporarily re-routing the AL3 ser- vice in November, for instance. According to Hap- ag-Lloyd, this serves “optimization of our range of services, stabilization of schedules and adaptation to market requirements.” The rotation now runs via Jax- port in Jacksonville, instead of the Port of Savannah. Ten liner services currently link the Port of Hamburg with the East and West coasts of the USA. Along with Hapag-Lloyd, other major shipping companies like CMA CGM, HMM, ONE and Yang Ming serve the trade. Apart from six container services, one combined container/RoRo cargo and three multi-pur- pose services are handled. The last three are espe- cially suitable for project and other general cargoes. In addition, three container services serve with ports on the North American West coast.
Hamburg is therefore solidly positioned in the USA trade, which over the past year has proved crisis-proof. Despite the current fraught situation in US ports, for the moment the outlook remains positive. ■ Lea Mentzel
Ten liner services connect the Port of Hamburg with the East and West coasts of the USA. Hapag Lloyd also serves these
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