Good first quarter for seaborne cargo handling in the Port of Hamburg

"Of the top 3 trading partners China, Russia and the USA, only the People's Republic of China recorded a slight decline of 2% compared to the previous year. For the first quarter, we see a continuation of the stabilization in container traffic that began in the last quarter of 2016 and assume that container traffic with China can also develop positively over the course of the year with a further increase in foreign trade volumes," says Egloff. In addition to Russia, which is still subject to restrictions on foreign trade due to the existing sanctions, the Baltic states, among others, are sourcing a significant proportion of goods from or exporting to China via Hamburg, achieving an increase of 28.2 percent with a total of 76,000 TEU. "A renewed increase in transhipment traffic with the Baltic region is rapidly boosting Hamburg's volumes thanks to double handling from sea to feeder ships and vice versa," adds Egloff.

In container shipping, the first quarter was characterized by consolidation, shipping companies' preparations for new alliances and the hope of a recovery in the market. The Port of Hamburg remains well positioned with more than 100 liner services and is served by ten Asian container services of the new THE and OCEAN alliances. In addition, there are two further Asian services of the 2M alliance. Due to the high transport volume, shipping companies are increasingly deploying particularly large container ships in the Asian services. In the first quarter of 2017, the number of calls by particularly large container ships in Hamburg increased once again. A total of 74 container ships with a slot capacity of more than 14,000 TEU moored in Hamburg (+61.0 percent). The fairway adjustment of the Elbe, which was largely approved by the Federal Administrative Court on February 9, 2017, is of great importance for the port in order to facilitate the encounter and flow of traffic for large ocean-going vessels on the Elbe. However, in the opinion of the court and the institutions responsible for the planning, the planning deficiencies identified by the court in the documentation of the salinity in relation to the hemlock water fennel, the documentation of the compensatory measures in Lower Saxony and the rejection of a compensatory measure on Hamburg territory can all be rectified. Conventional general cargo handling weakened in the first quarter and totalled 324,000 tons (-22.0 percent). According to Ingo Egloff, this was due to the loss of the Buss Hansa Terminal handling operation as well as a demand-related decline in RoRo traffic with Africa.

Record result for bulk handling

The record result in the bulk cargo handling segment in the first quarter of 2017 is outstanding. "Hamburg can do more than just containers. At 12.2 million tons, growth of 6.7 percent was achieved in the handling of suction cargo, grab cargo and liquid cargo. This makes Hamburg the only port among the major North Range ports with growth in this handling segment and underlines its position as a universal port for all types of cargo," says Egloff. Contributing to the handling result were the suction cargo segment with 2.3 million tons (+0.4 percent), the grab cargo handling segment with 6.4 million tons (+18.0 percent) and the liquid cargo segment with 3.5 million tons (-5.9 percent). The increased handling of coal, coke and ores on the import side and grain and mineral oil products on the export side had a positive impact on the very good performance in the first quarter.

Once again more goods transported by rail in Hamburg's seaport hinterland traffic

Around 11 percent of all German rail freight traffic begins or ends in the Port of Hamburg. With 2,000 container train connections offered per week, Hamburg is Europe's No. 1 rail port. In the first quarter of 2017, the transport volume on the Hamburg port railroad again developed positively at 11.6 million tons (+0.4 percent). Container transport by rail amounted to 587,000 TEU (+0.4 percent). The "Hamburg-NRWplus" cooperation project was launched on March 23, 2017 in order to further increase rail's share of freight transport. The two federal states will primarily use Port of Hamburg Marketing's market contacts to promote greater use of rail for freight transport to companies. New container train services, such as the connection between Warstein and Hamburg launched by the Warsteiner brewery at the beginning of the year, also ensure more transport capacity on the railroads and facilitate the transfer of shipments from truck to rail. The Hamburg port railroad and the transhipment terminals in the Port of Hamburg are very well prepared for further growth in container and bulk goods transport by rail. red