“Anything that rolls on wheels arrives here,” explains Hartmut Wolberg while sitting behind the wheel of a van. The managing director of UNIKAI Lagerei- und Speditionsgesellschaft drives across the 40-hectare terminal grounds, much of which is used for parking: “This is where the trucks arrive, but buses, agricultural machinery and tractor units that look brandnew also come here.” UNIKAI is one of two terminal operators at the O’Swaldkai port facility, where the company – predominantly owned by Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) – manages around two thirds of the area. At the terminal on the Elbe island of Kleiner Grasbrook, a Grimaldi ro-ro container ship is currently being loaded for West Africa. Among the cargo, three vehicles stacked on top of each other are waiting to be moved. “If you want to ship a dumper truck like this one, you can put a car or van on top of it – it’s really efficient,” says Wolberg.

The managing director heads towards the new vehicle department and passes by a number of BMW SUVs, all imported from South Africa for the German market. A transporter for eight cars approaches the terminal. Freshly manufactured export vehicles also arrive on the four railway tracks at the site. UNIKAI handles all new vehicles that Mercedes and VW ship via the Port of Hamburg. Wolberg drives to the brand-new Liebherr cranes that get to the terminal on their own axles: “That’s high-tech – our employees need to be qualified to use them.” They receive regular training at the company.

"We are the Swiss
army knife at
the Port of
Hamburg."

Hartmut Wolberg
Managing Director at UNIKAI
Lagerei- und Speditionsgesellschaft

Every year, UNIKAI handles around 150,000 vehicles, half of which are new and the other half used. Some of the new vehicles are packed in containers. “We put the vehicles on pallets and lash them in place. We then move the pallets into the container,” Wolberg clarifies. However, for the most part the vehicles are driven inside the ship via a ramp or loaded on trailers.

The port workers need to be adept with spanners and tension chains to double up individually delivered parts before they go on board, or to secure cargo on deck using belts. This work can be seen on the almost 300-metre-long ACL ro-ro container ship, which runs a weekly service to North America.

Carefully, Wolberg drives the van onto the lower deck, where there are crates of cargo that are too large or heavy for containers. The made-to-measure crates are constructed by professional carpenters in the adjacent lashing hall that spans 5,000 square metres.Secured for the voyage on roll trailers, they are strapped to lashing points recessed into the deck floor. “No-one else takes care of these kinds of transport operations at the Port of Hamburg,” stresses Wolberg. He points out another speciality outside: Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom insist on having new engines and railcars carefully pulled onto trailers, instead of using a crane. “This means we have to modify the trailers and weld tracks onto them. We have developed a system that allows us to pull railcars and locomotives directly onto the trailer from the track.”

Finally, Wolberg takes a turn into a hall where cacao from West Africa is stored. “We’re the Swiss army knife at the Port of Hamburg - the all-rounders. There’s hardly anything we can’t do,” he concludes. This also includes the water-side handling of refrigerated containers on behalf of the HHLA fruit and refrigeration centre (HHLA FKZ), which operates around 30 percent of the terminal space at O’Swaldkai. The majority owner is HHLA, and the Belgian terminal operator Sea-Invest holds a 49-percent stake.

“One in four bananas eaten in Germany is transhipped by us,” says Axel Hoeckrich, managing director of HHLA FKZ as well as the HHLA forwarding company Ulrich Stein. When he started at the forwarding company specialised in importing tropical fruits in 2007, there were still five banana ships at the quay wall. During the global economic crisis in 2007/2008, container shipping companies discovered the year-round business with high volumes. “Since 2012, shipping company Maersk has been working together with the fruit importer Fyffes, which has done away with its own refrigerated ships,” reports Hoeckrich. “Today, we handle about 400,000 tonnes of bananas each year, which come from several producing countries in Latin America.”

"One in every four Bananas
we eat in Germany
is handled by us."

Axel Hoeckrich
Managing Director at HHLA FKZ
and HHLA-Spedition Ulrich Stein

The HHLA FKZ consolidates banana boxes from the various container terminals at Hamburg, which larger container ships carry up the Elbe. The fight against drug imports plays an important part in these operations. Based on a risk analysis, banana samples have to go through a scanner. “Since there is particular focus on transports from South America, we have the highest scanning rate at the port,” he says. Once the goods have arrived in Hamburg, the forwarding company Ulrich Stein organises quality controls, customs clearance and transport to O’Swaldkai, with environmentally friendly barges where possible.

Trucks transport only a limited number of boxes, typically those that are time-sensitive. The sister company HHLA FKZ takes care of the complete physical handling – from acceptance of the container at the terminal, unloading and storage, to the loading of 400 refrigerated trucks per week, each with 24 pallets destined for the retail market.

The managing director adds that the average storage period is between three to four days: “Bananas are a fast-moving business.” Incidentally, only green bananas are transhipped at HHLA FKZ. Yellow bananas are removed and disposed of, since they would be overripe once they reach the market.

In addition to bananas, HHLA FKZ handles 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes of other, usually seasonal fruit each year, such as apples from New Zealand, citrus fruit from South Africa or grapes from India. At the world’s second most important hub for fruit commerce, the company works for multinational importers such as Fyffes, Dole, Del Monte or local companies such as Cobana, as well as directly for retailers like EDEKA and REWE.

Despite the long tradition of fruit handling at Hamburg since the end of the 19th century, there is a high degree of automation at O’Swaldkai today. One example Hoeckrich names is the automatic high-bay warehouse for bananas or the output station called the “Ballerina” because of how quickly it rotates. For “one of the most cutting-edge banana terminals in the world”, the lease agreement with the City of Hamburg was recently extended until 2049.