Hamburg Port reporting 6.4% container volume increase during Q1 2019

IF container throughput is anything to go by, then it appears that the Port of Hamburg has « something to sell » again, after the German gateway announced a 6.4 per cent increase in first-quarter container traffic.

Hamburg’s growth rate far exceeded « noisy neighbour » Antwerp’s 0.7 per cent upturn – in recent years the rival has held Hamburg’s traditional crown as the second-busiest container gateway in north Europe, reports London’s Loadstar.

Antwerp Port growth for container volumes up withonly 0.7% in Q1 2019

Hamburg said container volumes from China – its largest trading partner – had increased 2.1 per cent over the three-month period. « One in three of all containers handled in the port are for, or from, China, » he said.

« Complementing the excellent seaborne services, more than 235 connections by rail are now offered from Hamburg along the New Silk Road, » he added. Chief executive Axel Mattern described the port as the central freight handling hub for transport along both the maritime and overland Silk Road.

« Having handled around 4.8 million TEU last year for or from China, compared with other locations in Europe Hamburg is the main hub for China freight by a wide margin, » he said. The port’s container volumes for the three months to April hit 2.3 million TEU, with 865,000 TEU transported by feeder vessels onto other European ports.

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