Hamburg growth

Both imports and exports saw gains, and container handling reached 4.5m TEU, representing a 2.1% gain which defied a downward trend at other north European ports.

Hamburg’s seaborne cargo throughput is benefitting from 2013 growth in world trade put at 3.1% in the July forecast from the International Monetary Fund, and the very positive development of Baltic container services. A total of 1.1m TEU were transported during the first six months of the year in container traffic between the Port of Hamburg and the Baltic region, representing an increase of 8%

However, the German Federal Government’s Seaborne Traffic Forecast, already published in part, stresses that modernisation is urgently required, and expansion of infrastructure is essential. Among the infrastructure projects currently blocked is the deepening of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe.