In the first six months, total seaborne cargo throughput increased by 3.8% to 63.5 million tons. At 4.3 million TEU (20-foot standard containers), container throughput increased by 5.5 percent. After a slow start in the first two months, March and the second quarter brought a significant boost to container throughput. With a total of 19.3 million tons, the handling of bulk cargo also continued to develop positively and achieved an increase of 3.3%.

The ongoing global impact of the coronavirus pandemic continued to shape throughput development in the Port of Hamburg, particularly in the first months of the first half of 2021. "We can see that overall throughput in the Port of Hamburg has developed positively and has entered a recovery process. However, the decline in throughput in Hamburg last year due to the effects of the pandemic has not yet been fully recovered. Increasing imports and exports from the economy, strong consumer demand and our wide range of liner services in the Port of Hamburg are putting us on a stable growth course," explained Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing e.V. (HHM).

At the Port of Hamburg online press conference organized by HHM, Mattern was particularly pleased that a record result was achieved in container transport by rail. In the first six months of the year, a new record was achieved with a total of 1.4 million TEU on the Port of Hamburg Railway network. "That is an increase of 11.3 percent and underlines Hamburg's position as Europe's leading rail port," added Axel Mattern.

The first stage of the fairway adjustment in the Elbe has also had a positive effect. Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), pointed out that the completion of the first stage of the fairway adjustment on the Elbe has made it significantly easier for large ships to pass. "The Port of Hamburg is now also easier to reach for the particularly large container ships in the Megamax class, which have a slot capacity of 18,000 to 24,000 TEU. In the first half of the year alone, 107 of these megamax container ships came to Hamburg. That is an increase of 24.4 percent and clearly shows that the fairway adjustment is a successful project for the port, shipping and the economy," explained Meier.

Seaborne cargo throughput in the Port of Hamburg in the first half of 2021
In the first six months of the year, 63.5 million tons of seaborne cargo were loaded or unloaded at the terminals in the universal port of Hamburg. This represents an increase of 3.8 percent compared to the previous year. General cargo throughput increased by 4.0 percent to 44.2 million tons. Container throughput in Hamburg also showed a clear upward trend with a total of 4.3 million TEU (20-foot standard containers). This represents an increase of 5.5 percent compared to the same period last year. In terms of exports, container throughput (2.1 million TEU) rose more strongly than imports, with an increase of 6.1 percent. In this segment, 2.2 million TEU (+5.0%) were handled. Growth in the handling of loaded containers, which are particularly interesting for value creation in the port, was very strong at 6.9% (3.8 million TEU in total). At 464,000 TEU, empty container handling was still down 4.5 percent on the same period last year.
Bulk cargo handling increased by 3.3% to a total of 19.3 million tons. Within the bulk cargo segment, the handling of grab cargo developed very strongly with a total of 10.5 million tons, achieving an increase of 20.0%. The import of ore made a particular contribution to this growth. At 5.0 million tons (+26.3%), this made a major contribution to the very good result in the bulk goods segment. At 3.2 million tons (-22.6%) and 5.6 million tons (-3.3%), the handling performance in the suction cargo and liquid cargo segments remained below the previous year's result.

A look at the container trade lanes also paints a positive picture. "With the exception of Australia/Pacific, the other trade lanes America, Asia and Africa all reported positive throughput development. In the European trades, only transhipment handling with the Scandinavian countries developed positively with an increase of 6.4%. Overall, European traffic recorded a slight increase of 0.5 percent in the first half of the year," said Mattern.

Different developments in the top 10 partner countries in sea container handling
Container throughput in the Port of Hamburg's ten most important trading partners developed differently in the first six months of 2021. Seaborne container throughput with China, Hamburg's largest trading partner by far, increased by 14.2 percent to 1.3 million TEU. Despite the massive restrictions on handling operations in some Chinese ports in the meantime, almost all ports reported growth in container throughput for the first half of the year. A total of 22.9 million TEU were handled in Chinese ports in the first six months. That is an increase of 14.9 percent.

The USA, still Hamburg's No. 2, also remained on course for growth with 303,000 TEU (+5.3 percent). Other countries in the top 10 with a positive container throughput trend in the first six months were Sweden (+5.3 percent), South Korea (+2.4 percent), Poland (+14.4 percent), Brazil (+16.1 percent) and Denmark (+6.4 percent). These pleasing developments in seaborne container throughput offset the declines with other countries in the first half of the year. "Among Hamburg's top 10 trading partners in seaborne container traffic, a clear upward trend can be seen and seven countries are already on course for growth. Among the three countries in decline, we are seeing stabilization and a slight recovery. Overall, we expect the growth in seaborne cargo throughput at the universal port of Hamburg to continue in the second half of the year," emphasized Mattern.

More security required for global supply chains
Despite the positive development of handling figures in the Port of Hamburg, the logistical challenges for global transport chains remain very great. Difficulties arise due to a lack of transport capacity, uncertainties in connection with the further course of the pandemic and other events, such as the recent accident involving a container ship in the Suez Canal. The effects can also be seen at the land-sea transport interface and therefore in Germany's largest seaport. "Together with the port industry, the Hamburg Port Authority and our port customers, we have so far been able to maintain 24/7 operations in the port and are working on optimizing the logistical processes in the port and the inbound and outbound traffic. Our goal is the smooth and efficient handling of global freight traffic in the Port of Hamburg," said Axel Mattern. Knut Alicke, Partner at McKinsey & Company, made it clear in his presentation at the Port of Hamburg online press conference how vulnerable global supply chains have become. This applies not only to the weeks-long delays of many ships, but also to digital security and, last but not least, structural events such as climate change or crisis situations in individual countries. In order to counter such dangers, permanent analysis is necessary. Only those who quickly identify a new situation can adapt to it, emphasized Alicke. Many companies have reacted since March 2020 and intensified their own supply chain risk management. Only with the necessary resilience in companies can global supply flows be kept flowing.

Record for container transport by rail
In the first six months of the year, 1.4 million TEU were transported on the tracks of the Hamburg port railroad. That is an increase of 11.3 percent. "We are delighted with this record. Despite some difficult conditions, the Port of Hamburg's inbound and outbound container rail traffic continued to increase. This pleasure is enhanced by the very good result of 23.7 million tons (+4.4 percent) of goods transported by rail," said HPA CEO Jens Meier. The Hamburg port railroad manages over 200 freight trains with more than 5,500 wagons every day on the efficient rail network of around 300 kilometers in length. According to Meier, the system has also proven to be reliable during the coronavirus pandemic. "We regret that there were occasional delays in rail handling in the Port of Hamburg in the first half of the year due to the large number of ship delays. However, the terminal operators and rail operators, together with the many inland terminals, worked hard to avoid bottlenecks in handling," added Meier. This has also made it possible to further improve the capacity utilization of container trains. In the Port of Hamburg's seaport-hinterland traffic, the rail share of the modal split is also being increased through even better utilization of train paths and equipment. Last year, rail was already the leading mode of transport for landside transportation in Germany's largest seaport, with a share of 50.7 percent.

In addition to the positively developing seaport-hinterland rail services, there were also new Silk Road container train connections between Hamburg and China in the first half of 2021. Among other things, the new train connections between Hamburg and the Chinese cities of Shijiazhuang (Hebei) and Wuhei (Gansu province) provided additional continental container transports. Existing connections with Suzhou and Xi'an were also expanded by additional providers. The ancient Silk Road began in the old Chinese imperial city of Xi'an. Hamburg has the most rail connections with Xi'an and cargo from Xi'an reaches the terminals in the port almost every day of the week. Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, follows in terms of the number of connections. Since the beginning of the year, goods from Hanoi in Vietnam have also regularly reached Hamburg via this connection.

Outlook for 2021
The Port of Hamburg's marketing organization expects an upward trend in seaborne cargo throughput in 2021. With the stabilization of liner service departures and new services, a handling result of around 130 million tons and 8.7 million TEU is achievable in an improving global situation.