2015 Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards: Port of Hamburg selected as ‘Best Seaport – Europe 2015’

30 Jun 2015 09:27 Shipping News

The Port of Hamburg was successful in two of the 39 categories at the 29th presentation of awards at the Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards (AFLAS) in Hong Kong on 24 June 2015. Germany’s largest seaport was elected ‘Best Seaport – Europe 2015’ by readers of the trade journal ‘Asia Cargo News’. Hamburg prevailed in the final round against the ports of Rotterdam and Le Havre. Decisive for nomination, also by the readers, were steady service quality, innovations, customer management and reliability. The three finalists were subsequently evaluated on whether they are able to provide sufficient infrastructure for handling container services, offer a fees system embodying appropriate competition and costs and are making suitable and timely investment in infrastructural measures to enable them to meet future market challenges. Additional criteria were the promotion of port-related services, among these the offer of sufficient logistics storehouse capacities and forwarding and transport services, as well as minimum annual throughput of 2 million TEU. With 15,000 readers, ‘Asia Cargo News’ is among the most important publications in Asia for the logistics, sea and air freight sector.
 
 “We are delighted about this award. The result shows that despite currently still restricted access conditions, the Port of Hamburg with its variety of services and handling quality is still highly rated by companies in the Asian import and export industry. Innovative traffic control schemes of the kind being introduced as part of the Hamburg Port Authority’s smartPORT logistics concept also prove that the Port of Hamburg is far-sightedly adjusting to future market demands,” said a gratified Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM).
 
The second winner from the Hamburger point of view was EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg. This received the award in the ‘Best Container Terminal Europe 2015’ category. Reader criteria here were the diversity of the range of services, the degree of crane productivity in waterside cargo handling, efficiency of truck clearance, efficiency enhancement through expansion of terminal capacities as well as the reliability of IT systems. At its terminal in Waltershof docks EUROGATE currently handles the world’s largest containerships with no problems, contributing to the Port of Hamburg’s attractiveness for shippers from Asia.

The ‘Best Green Shipping Line – 2015’ award also went to a Hamburg-based company. The winner was the long-established shipowner Hamburg-Süd. This is one of the few shipping companies to have introduced environmental control, setting itself verifiable and obligatory ecological targets such as a reduction of CO2e emissions.

Anne Thiesen, HHM Representative for the South China and Hong Kong market region, accepted the prize for the Port of Hamburg from Alaina Shum, General Manager Aviation Logistics Hong Kong International Airport. The prize-giving ceremony in the Sky100 suite in the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong was attended by 200 guests.
For the Port of Hamburg, Asia is its most important market region. With 5.2 million TEU, up 7.9 percent, in 2014 it was the Asia trade that mainly powered growth for the port on the Elbe. Out in front, China as Hamburg’s top trading partner reported its strongest growth with an advance of 9.8 percent to almost 3 million TEU. In 2014 total throughput with India reached a record 232,000 TEU, up 14.9 percent. This trend in container traffic between India and Hamburg was maintained in the first quarter of 2015.


 

Best Seaport - Europe 2015