Hamburg’s CC3 keeps pace with big cruise demand

Work on the German port city’s new Cruise Centre 3 (CC3) started in June after the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) named construction firm Goldbeck West GmbH in Hamburg as turnkey builders. Work is for completion in May next year with operation starting in June. The project follows years of discussion about a third terminal which has sometimes been stormy.

CC3 is being built on 16 hectares at the Kronprinzkai on the Kaiser Wilhelm Hafen in Steinwerder just south of the Elbe and a stone’s-throw from the historic Blohm + Voss Shipyard. HPA Management Board Chairman Jens Meier said location advantages included excellent transport links and an already built-up quay.

The HPA’s Sinje Pangritz told Maritime Journal the quay was 450m long. She also acknowledged that water depths would need to be adjusted in places to cope with ships of more than 330m – an indication some dredging also lies ahead.

CC3 will join Hamburg’s two existing Elbe cruise terminals. Cruise Centre Hafen City (CC1) has two berths of 330m and 295m for ships drawing up to 11.5m while Cruise Centre Altona (CC2) can handle ships up to 300m drawing 12m. They will continue to handle smaller vessels and transit passengers but CC3 will handle big ship passenger exchanges.

Sinje Pangritz said the groundwork on CC3 started in June and that above-ground construction of terminal buildings was starting in July. It was expected to be completed by the end of this year with the entire facility due for completion next May. The single-storey structure will have a floor space of 10,600 sq m and the capacity to handle more than 4,000 incoming and 4,000 outgoing passengers in a single ten hour turnaround.

Unlike the other two terminals, CC3 will have separated passenger flows with departures in the western part of the two-part building and arrivals in the eastern section. Passengers will use routing hallways accessible by stairs as well as lift and escalator and passenger bridges to board or leave their ships. Experienced passenger handling project partner Hamburg Airport is assisting the HPA in handling some 10,000 pieces of baggage per call.

A 10,000 sq m area behind the terminal building will offer long and short-term parking. Plans provide for up to 1,500 slots for private vehicles and more than twenty coach bays as well as taxi drop-off and pick-up points. Connections to the Hamburg public transport network are also planned.

Despite earlier controversy, the need for a third cruise terminal in Hamburg – Germany’s biggest seaport and second largest city – cannot any longer be seriously in doubt. There has been an increase in cruise passenger figures in the past few years which has been much greater than anyone expected, including city planners. In 2013 there were 177 calls by cruise ships with 550,000 passengers – a 28% increase over 2012 and one not expected for another two years. This year nearly 200 calls are scheduled with ships carrying about 600,000 passengers. By 2021 more than a million passengers are expected as ships get ever bigger.

The CC3 construction contract awarded to Goldbeck West covers the preparation of planning application documents and construction of new terminal buildings. The German firm specialises in projects using pre-fabricated system components and in quick, economic and turnkey construction which it says is flexible with individual buildings tailored to requirements and also energy efficient.

Goldbeck West was itself awarding sub contracts, not initially revealed, for the construction of the terminal’s car park and the two covered passenger boarding bridges. CC3 was also getting land-based ship electrical power and LNG fuel supply facilities.

Sinje Pangritz told Maritime Journal CC3 was costing €58.6 million, made up of €30.9 million for the terminal buildings and €27.7 million for the transport and parking areas. Media reports put the total cost at around €70 million, but Ms Pangritz said that included a further €7 million being spent on Cruise Centre Hafen City (CC1) which is to get a modern new terminal building with construction starting in 2016 once CC3 is in operation.

Ms Pangritz said costs were being financed by bank loans being repaid over 15 years, in the case of CC3, and 30 years in the case of CC1. They are reportedly being recouped from terminal earnings. Completion of CC3 by June next year was a crucial issue when construction started because Rostock-based AIDA Cruises had booked a berth on June 20th 2015 for its newest ship, the 124,500 GT AIDAprima, now being built in Japan.

Aida Cruises President Michael Ungerer was quoted earlier this year saying the city had to deliver on its terminal promise. In a lecture to Hamburg’s Hafen Club he is said to have added: “Plan B is to erect a tent and heat it”. Since then however a sixth month delay in the delivery of AIDAprima by Japanese builders Mitsubishi has scotched the plan, and no doubt also taken a little pressure off terminal builders.

AIDAprima, carrying up to 3,300 passengers, will not now call at CC3 until a year later – March 2016. A spokeswoman for the Hamburg Senate said however “we are of course still sticking to our time-table for the terminal because the additional capacity we are creating is for all shipping companies”.

Hamburg’s Minister for Economic and Labour Affairs Frank Horch echoed that. “Hamburg’s entire business community will benefit from this development. … Hamburg has already invested substantially in cruise infrastructure. With the realisation of the third cruise terminal at Kronprinzkai … we are meeting the demand of shipping lines for efficient terminal capacities”.

By Tom Todd