Cuxport pushes location advantages

It is eight years since a disappointed Cuxhaven, backed by Hamburg, lost the battle with Wilhelmshaven to host Germany’s new deepwater container port. Undaunted, the state of Lower Saxony dusted itself off and moved on to exploit the many advantages of its Elbe Estuary port in other sectors.

About €170m in public money and more than €100m in private investment cash have since been ploughed into transforming Cuxport into a base for multi-purpose cargo handling and offshore operations. Lower Saxony has financed quay and hinterland site construction while private cash has gone into production facilities.

Port Community head Peter Zint now tips further private investment of about €100m in handling equipment up to the end of next year and says a similar sum is being held ready by state authorities for further infrastructure expansion.

To complement the facility’s Ro-Ro berths, a special 1,600 sq/m quay for project loads and heavy lift cargo was completed in 2006. The Offshore Terminal 1, with a 600 ton portal crane on 160m of quay was inaugurated in 2009 and the Offshore Terminal 11 is being completed this year, increasing quay length to 510m.

A 290m Berth 4 at the new Europakai Terminal will add 85,000 sq/m to the existing 260,000 sq/m site from this year and there are plans for even further berths at the new Terminal, one reportedly a special offshore berth. Zint believes that Cuxport, with its easy access for big ships and proximity to offshore wind farms, is the ideal location for an offshore base.

He addsed that offshore already accounts for about 5% of Cuxhaven’s handling, which last year totalled about 1.8m tons.

By Tom Todd