The Baltic Sea region is one of Europe's most important shipping areas. Thanks to its favourable location on the Kiel Canal, the Port of Hamburg is the most important Northern European transhipment hub for Baltic Sea traffic. It acts as a hub for the transhipment of goods between intercontinental mega-ships and smaller feeder ships and their onward distribution in the Baltic region. Intra-European cargo for the North Sea and Baltic region is also loaded here (short sea shipping). Many feeder and short-sea services operate weekly from Hamburg to Scandinavia, Poland, Finland and the Baltic.

Port of Hamburg Marketing looks after the Baltic region from its head office. Due to the outstanding importance of the region, HHM maintains good contacts with local ports such as Gothenburg (Sweden) or Klaipeda (Lithuania). The connection between Hamburg's port industry and the Polish market is also cultivated by our representative office in Warsaw.

With around 450 million consumers, the European single market is one of the largest single markets in the industrialised world. For many companies in Central and Eastern Europe, the Port of Hamburg is one of the most important gateways to all markets worldwide. The universal port benefits from its excellent hinterland connections, especially by rail. Around 2000 container train connections link Hamburg with the European hinterland, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary.

Port of Hamburg Marketing serves the Central and Eastern European market on a large scale. In the DACH region we represent the Port of Hamburg's interests at four locations - Essen, Dresden, Augsburg and Vienna. For matters relating to Eastern Europe, our members have had representative offices in Warsaw, Prague and Budapest at their disposal since the 1990s.

India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies and an important trading partner for Germany. In this context, the Port of Hamburg plays a central role as a hub for the exchange of goods between the two countries. India imports a wide range of products, including machinery, automobiles and electronics. At the same time, Indian products such as chemicals, clothing and textiles also enter the German market. The Port of Hamburg has the infrastructure and logistics expertise needed to handle and distribute these goods efficiently.

Since 2011, our member companies have had a direct local contact point at our representative office in Mumbai for all questions relating to the Indian market.

China, Japan and South Korea are important sales markets for German products (e.g. machinery, chemicals and automotive parts). The port's excellent connections to the European hinterland enable companies to efficiently transport their goods to the North-East Asian markets. At the same time, the Port of Hamburg is one of the most important transhipment centres in Europe for containers and cargo from North-East Asia. Many goods that are produced here arrive in Europe by sea and are transported onwards via Hamburg. However, a large proportion also remains in the metropolitan region.

Due to the importance of this region, the Hamburg Port Authority maintains partnerships with the most important ports in China, South Korea and Japan. The Hamburg Liaison Office Shanghai has been looking after the interests and concerns of our members and other Hamburg players from politics, culture and business for over 20 years.

The reorganisation of supply chains due to the pandemic and geopolitical changes has triggered a strong dynamic in Southeast Asia, particularly in the ASEAN states of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Singapore is the Port of Hamburg's third most important partner country in terms of volume. It acts as a key transshipment hub, handling the largest volume of containers worldwide between Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Hamburg benefits from the volume growth in this region. The increased volumes there have led to investments in infrastructure. For example, capacities have been expanded in ports in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.

Port of Hamburg Marketing has many years of expertise in the (Southeast) Asian market. HHM looks after the Southeast Asian market from its Hamburg headquarters and provides its member companies with help and advice on issues relating to the region.

Ports play an important factor in reaching European and national climate targets. They form the economic backbone of the Baltic Sea Region, but at the same time emissions from cargo transport and port activities are major contributors to environmental pollution.

The Blue Supply Chains project strives to support port authorities and operators in particular in implementing long-term steps towards decarbonisation. The project follows a three-pillar approach with a holistic perspective to include various port-relevant aspects. This encompasses answers to the questions of how the process of greening port operations can be supported (e.g. via electrification of handling equipment), how alternative fuels can be expanded (bunkering and loading strategy) and how environmentally friendly transport chains can be maintained and better connected (via combined transport).

The project will run from January 2023 to December 2025 under the leadership of Hafen Hamburg Marketing.

For more information please visit https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/bluesupplychains/.

The BREEZE project stands for "Berth Electricity for Zero Emission in Ports."

Its goal is to support the use of onshore power supply systems in ports, promote their acceptance across Europe, and assist in the further expansion of the power grid by the EU's 2030 deadline.

The partnership aims to optimise existing and future ERDF programmes to ensure widespread onshore power availability in ports by 2030, thereby contributing significantly to emission reductions. Key to this effort are shared exchanges of experience, learning from best practice applications, and the development of new strategies within the project partnership.

The project is led by the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and is supported by Hafen Hamburg Marketing e. V., which acts as communications manager and advisory partner for the consortium.

The project will run from May 2025 to July 2029.

Circular Economy is a central component of the European Green Deal, which seeks to minimize waste and emissions by reusing products and materials. Ports, with their combination of heavy industry, energy production, waste handling, and logistics, are ideal for developing and testing synergistic solutions.

Circular Ports is a project focused on implementing circular economy strategies in port environments through collaboration between industrial and port stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region. The project aims to pilot and demonstrate the potential of circular economy approaches in ports.

The project will run from March 2025 to February 2028 under the leadership of Port of Hamburg Marketing. Further information on the project: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/circularports

CoboTank is a project to develop and test collaborative and automated robotic systems to support the loading process of tankers. The project, led by Garant Mineralölhandelsgesellschaft mbH, aims to optimise the loading processes of inland tankers using partially and fully automated robot systems. Until now, this area has been characterised by manual, physically demanding and error-prone work. The use of a collaborative robot system, known as a cobot, is expected to increased process and work safety.

Further automation of the loading/unloading process using a robot is the long-term vision. This project thus addresses the great need for future-proof, automated solutions in the area of liquid goods handling.

The project will run from July 2022 to June 2025 under the management of Garant Mineralölhandelsgesellschaft mbH.

Further information about the project: www.cobotank.de

To ensure that liquid and gaseous goods can be handled and stored in ports even more safely and environmentally friendly in the future, digital handling and monitoring is becoming increasingly important.

The central aim of the DigiTank project will be the development of a so-called digital twin, the use of an innovative control station and a mobile monitoring system for tank farms. The project involves Evos Hamburg GmbH, Schotte Automotive GmbH & Co. KG, the University of Duisburg-Essen, Hafen Hamburg Marketing e.V., ma-co maritimes competenzcentrum GmbH, UTV - Unabhängiger Tanklagerverband e.V. and the ZLV - Zentrum für Logistik und Verkehr are involved in the project.

The project will run from January 2025 to December 2028 under the management of Evos Hamburg GmbH. Further information on the project: www.digitank.info

The project Green Supply Chains focuses on leveraging synergies in the electrification strategies of (inland) ports and neighboring regions. Further decarbonization of the ports' hinterland traffic is taken into account here.

The HHM member company modility aims to expand the existing booking tool, which simplifies the booking and use of rail transport and thus supports a shift in transport towards rail. The Hamburg Port Authority is investigating the possibility of further rolling out shore power solutions for other port customers.

The project will run from January 2024 to December 2026 under the management of Port of Hamburg Marketing Reg. Assoc.

Further information about the project: www.interregnorthsea.eu/gsc

The “Skills for a Green Industrial Transition” (GRIT) project develops training- and education programs for qualified technicians to support the green industrial transition in the port environment.

The HHM member company ma-co maritimes competenzcentrum GmbH, as a vocational training center in the port of Hamburg, will work with HHM to identify future qualification needs and develop corresponding courses tailored to the needs.

The duration of the project is from January 2024 to June 2025 under the leadership of Province Antwerp.

Further information about the project: www.interregnorthsea.eu/grit

The FuelEU Maritime Regulation, the rising prices in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the indicative target of the RED III Regulation mean that renewable fuels such as hydrogen or hydrogen derivatives will play an increasing role in decarbonization, especially in maritime transport.

The H2Derivatives@BalticSeaPorts project enables the development of knowledge and skills among port authorities and stakeholders in the Baltic Sea ports to enable qualified handling and bunkering of sustainable H2 derivatives in the future.

The project will run from March 2025 to February 2028 under the leadership. More information can be found at https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/h2deribsp/

Project H2ignite stands for ‘‘Igniting H2 Transport Innovation Ecosystems in the North Sea Region’’. It focuses on green hydrogen innovations by establishing four regional hydrogen ecosystems, developing business models for hydrogen transport value chains, and improving transnational communication.

The Port of Hamburg will help establish a cross-sector forum for the North Sea region and promote the joint strategy for the hydrogen innovation ecosystem. Therefore POHM works closely with the Hamburg Authority for Economy and Innovation, the Hamburg Port Authority and the Senate Chancellery of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

The project runs from September 2024 to August 2027 under the management of the Schleswig-Holstein (SH) Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Areas, European Affairs and Consumer Protection (MLLEV).

Further information can be found on the project website: https://www.interregnorthsea.eu/h2ignite

The REDII Ports project stands for “Renewable Energy Development and Intelligent Implementation in Ports”. It focuses on the programme area of renewable energy - from the perspective of a port authority.

The project aims aims to promote solutions and their technical implementation for the economic production, storage, and use of alternative fuels in port locations. REDII Ports has a special focus on five alternatives promoted by an EU directive and relevant to a port community: ELECTRICITY (LAND/HYDRO/BATTERY), WIND/TIDAL/SOLAR; BIODIESEL, HYDROGEN, AMMONIA/METHANOL.

The duration of the project is from September 2023 to October 2025 under the management of the Port of Skagen.

Further information about the project: www.interregnorthsea.eu/redii-ports

The “Shore Power In European Shipping” (SPIES) projects complement the activities in the Green Supply Chains project. The focus here is on developing an action plan for a coordinated expansion of shore power supply for inland and coastal vessels.

The HHM member company Hamburg Port Authority and the Federal Association of Inland Ports are supporting the project consortium in an advisory capacity.

The duration of the project is from January 2024 to June 2025 under the leadership of Provinciale Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij (POM) Limburg.

Further information about the project: www.interregnorthsea.eu/spies

The BSR Access Project Platform in transport interoperability approved by the Interreg V B Baltic Sea Region Programme, strives to foster an access to clean, efficient and multimodal transport corridors in the Baltic Sea Region. BSR Access combines competences and geographies of the former projects EMMA, TENTacle, NSB CoRe, GREAT and Scandria2Act into one cooperation platform dealing with transport interoperability and regional development.

The main objective for the project platform is to mobilise stakeholders to a more coherent, cross-sectoral and adaptive planning approach that would ensure a better access infrastructure to the TEN-T core network corridors, and thereby a sustainable regional growth.

The project runs from October 2018 to September 2021 and the leading partner is the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council.

More information on BSR Access can be found on www.bsraccess.eu

COMBINE focuses on strengthening Combined Transport in the Baltic Sea Region through efficiency-enhancing measures at transhipment points and pre-carriage and follow-up traffic. The focus is on the use of new technologies in the pre / post-run, transhipment, the development of suitable business models and the improvement of the political framework, considering the Baltic Sea region specifics. Hafen Hamburg Marketing e.V. manages the Interreg BSR cooperation project, in which thirteen other project partners are involved.

The project started on January 1, 2019 (duration 30 months).

Further information on the COMBINE project can be found at www.combine-project.com.

EMMA Extension builds on the EMMA project’s’ analyses, results and recommendations. Enhancing inland waterway transport (IWT) is still at the core of the extension project and all its activities.

EMMA Extension is the logical next step in further developing IWT services in Poland and Lithuania as well as to support the uptake of newly developed river information services (RIS) in Germany, Poland and Finland. Thus, the project will increase the quality and sustainability of results. The project is led by Port of Hamburg Marketing Reg. Assoc. and brings together six project partners from the Baltic Sea Region.

Project lifetime: August 1, 2019 – July 21, 2021

Further information on EMMA Extension at www.project-emma.eu

By engaging stakeholders from port related businesses, logistics business along the supply chain, administration and policy, LISA aims to create a large partnership around the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The focus lies within the facilitation of innovative technologies and solutions, digitalization and optimization of port calls linking sea and land and serving the stakeholders as a creative platform for projects, initiatives and other relevant stakeholders. The overall goal is to steer and maneuver towards the realization of EUSBSR policy area transport action plan.

LISA focuses on these areas to support the cross-sector harmonization process towards a European Maritime Single Window and other digitalization processes along the logistics- and supply chain. The idea with LISA is to establish a long-term process to support these cross-sectoral digitalization efforts in transport and logistics in the BSR. This process will help to facilitate joint initiatives and joint project applications linking land and sea in the Baltic Sea Region and with that increase connectivity and intermodality and thus support a greener and more efficient transport system.

The LISA activities are funded by the Swedish Institute Seed funding for cooperation projects in the Baltic Sea Region.
Further Information on the project can be found at: http://www.lisaflagship.eu/flagship/

The North Sea region (NSR) is one of the logistics zones in Europe: The largest seaports, but also many intermodal transportation nodes are located in the NSR. Those intermodal nodes are outstanding for the transportation of goods to and from the supply and demand markets. To increase attractiveness of a location along with its market potential, i.e. the achievable market, efficient, smart, and ecological transportation networks are needed. The intermodality should enable a concentration of transnational traffic and long distance flows, and as a result of their integration, provide for a highly resource efficient infrastructure use.
Currently, the Trans-European Network-Transport (TEN-T) policy is putting a strong focus on the development of the Core Network, the major transport axes across Europe. The whole trade and business network is not only depending on its major nodes but also on its hinterland. To raise the efficiency of transport flows in a holistic approach, the project will thus include both major and remoter transporation nodes to establish learning opportunities.

The overall project objective is to support smart intermodality growth in the NSR through efficiency enhancements. The detailed project objectives are:

• Implementation of new smart processes and tools (smart intermodality),
• Developing of strategies for smart efficiency enhancements (smart involvement)

Part of NSR Connect was the upgrade of “transPORT rail info”, the Hamburg Port Railway information system. On transPORT rail current transport data for rail traffic at the port of Hamburg are displayed, e.g., transport orders, container status information and carriage locations.

A prerequisite for the opening and use of the transPORT rail web client (TPR) is that you have concluded a transPORT rail contract and received an access from the product management as well as a safety certificate for the installation.

Once registered, you can access the system via the following link: Go to transPORT rail Web-Client.

The perspective of transportation is transnational. New are the instruments for implementation and involvement.
The project started on 24 February 2020 and ends in March 2023.

Further information on the North Sea CONNECT project can be found at: https://northsearegion.eu/north-sea-connect

By engaging stakeholders from administration, port related business and logistics business along the supply chain, SMOOTH PORTS’ aims to reduce CO2 emissions from port-related road traffic by improving regional policy instruments in a holistic manner.

To achieve these aims, SMOOTH PORTS wants to utilise the differences of the project partners’ ports through an exchange of effective tools and best practices. A key focus lies on finding optimal procedures for the clearance of the goods. A further focus will be on the different approaches regarding Information and Communications Technology solutions for various traffic related port activities as well as on the question what alternative fuels can power port activities in the future.

The project started on 1st August 2019 and ends in January 2023.

Further information on the SMOOTH PORTS project can be found at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/smoothports/