Page 30 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 01.2018

■ 50 YEARS OF CONTAINERS IN HAMBURG
THE PORT OF HAMBURG IS VERY WELL LINKED VIA THE ELBE AND ITS LATERAL CANALS WITH THE EUROPEAN INLAND WATERWAY NETWORK. REGULAR CONTAINER SERVICES TO PORTS IN SAXONY AND LOWER SAXONY, THE RUHR AND THE LOWER ELBE SHOULD SOON BE COMPLEMENTED BY ONE BETWEEN HAMBURG AND BERLIN
30 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2018
The forwarder and his inland waterway craft
Hamburg forwarder Konrad Zippel has already tried twice to establish a regular container service using inland waterway craft between Berlin and Hamburg. Twice the firm has failed, cost pressure being too heavy. Now Joint CEOs Axel Plass and Axel Kröger are making a third attempt.
Port of Hamburg Magazine (PoHM): One can im- agine that you have a soft spot for inland water- way craft. What is behind your commitment to this area?
Axel Plass: We are increasingly reaching our capac- ity limits by road and rail. For us, the inland water- way craft is an ideal extension to capacity that we can readily incorporate in our services. On the Ber- lin-Hamburg/Hamburg-Berlin route, we could trans- port an additional 60 TEU per week. So we have nev- er relaxed our focus on the inland waterway vessel.
PoHM: Despite everything, however, you have twice failed to set up an inland waterway contain- er service. What were the reasons?
Plass: The operative processes most certainly worked. In both cases we foundered on the additional handling costs levied in the Port of Hamburg.
PoHM: Has the cost situation meanwhile im- proved? And how about further challenges? Plass: We are in dialogue with Hamburg’s terminals to establish an appropriate business model for the inland waterway container service. Yet one essential for the successful opening of the service is that the inland waterway craft should suit the great majority of our customers as alternative cargo space, able to be handled at every terminal in the Port of Hamburg. Our customer structure is very fragmented. For only two to three customers, the use of the inland waterway
© HHM/Dietmar Hasenpusch