The past two years have been challenging ones for German ports, and these difficulties are not going away. Hamburg continues to lose box traffic, albeit at a slower rate, with volumes down 1.2% in H1 2016 compared with the corresponding period of 2015. A total of 4.45M TEU was handled. The latest result followed a more than 9% decline in throughput to 8.9M TEU in calendar year 2015.

The port’s management attributed the latest decline to a fall in transhipment traffic with Scandinavia and Poland/Baltic states, with volume down 5.6% and 5.7%, respectively, on the same period of 2015. Principally, this was the result of ports such as Gothenburg and Gdansk handling a larger number of direct call mainline services.

A more positive note was sounded on the Russia situation. “Despite the continuance of foreign trade sanctions, 216,000 TEU were transported between Hamburg and Russia, representing a 2.3% increase on last year,” said Axel Mattern, joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing. “The collapse in container traffic between Hamburg, Russia and China that the port suffered last year has almost halted.”

He added: “Seaborne cargo throughput in the Port of Hamburg in the first half of the year may have been slightly lower, but the trend was noticeably more stable. With an advance of 1.9% by comparison with the preceding three months, the second quarter of 2016 already signalled a discernible upward trend.”

Elbe grounding

But issues surrounding the dredging of the Elbe have still not been resolved. The grounding of the 19,100 TEU CSCL INDIAN OCEAN in February once again highlighted concerns over navigational difficulties in the Elbe and the need for it to be deepened. Currently, ULCVs (14,000-19,000 TEU) cannot enter or leave the German port fully loaded.

Despite these drawbacks, liner companies have not stopped their biggest vessels calling in Hamburg. Indeed, according to recent data issued by the port, ULCVs activity in Hamburg in H1 2016 was 83% higher than in the corresponding period of 2015.

Meanwhile, competition is increasing. Jade Weser Port (JWP – Wilhelmshaven) is gaining traction and in 2015 handled 426,751 TEU. This was up from just 67,067 TEU in 2014. JWP does not have the same navigational restrictions as either Hamburg or Bremerhaven, with the river Jade having a depth of 18m in the approach channel. At least 16.5m of water is available alongside the port’s container handling facilities. 

It has also benefited from a diversion of some services from NTB Bremerhaven after the terminal had to take 10 cranes out of service when an inspection found possible cracking on one unit. JWP also has plenty of spare capacity. Its current design throughput is 2.7M TEU/year but this could be doubled, depending on traffic growth, by 2025.

Meanwhile, improvements to the local rail connection will boost the port’s gateway role for Germany and central/eastern Europe. Elsewhere, Gdansk (Poland) is one of several ports developing new and larger container terminals and positioning themselves to handle a larger slice of the Russian and Baltic States transhipment trade. Historically, this region has been a strong market for Hamburg. Germany’s other main deepsea container port, Bremerhaven, has  performed slightly better, benefitting from Maersk Line and MSC having their own terminals in the port. While traffic fell from 5.8M TEU in 2014 to 5.3M TEU in 2015, a 4% jump in H1 2016 saw 2.84M TEU handled. 

In line with the Port of Hamburg, HHLA, its largest operator of container terminals, posted a very disappointing result in H1 2016. Its throughput of just over 3M TEU was more than 6% lower than in the same period of 2015, with management attributing this to a “persistently weak” Asia/Europe trade. 

Despite the decline in its core  port/terminal management business, HHLA did report some successes elsewhere, with its intermodal volumes rising by 6.2% to 694,000 TEU.

HHLA is investing in both its rail and port operations. It recently completed a €10M expansion at its rail terminal in the Altenwerder (CTA) complex. By adding two more tracks (up to nine) for the loading/discharging of rail wagons and formation of the block trains, HHLA has increased its throughput capacity by almost 20% (140,000 containers) to 930,000 boxes a year. 

The work was needed as the facility was operating at close to capacity, with HHLA indicating that 769,000 containers were handled at the CTA rail yard in 2015. Moreover, the port, the railways and the German Government are keen to see more of the country’s international freight moved by rail, and, for this to take place, infrastructural improvement programmes are needed. 

HHLA beefs up 

HHLA also recently took delivery of several new super postPanamax STS cranes, a clear sign, perhaps, that management expects progress on the dredging issue. The three cranes are being erected at the company’s Burchardkai 
(CTB) facility and should be fully operational from the end of 2016. HHLA already has five similar sized cranes at the terminal. 

Stefan Behn, a member of HHLA’s executive board, explained that the investment in the new equipment reflected the increasing use of ULCVs by ocean carriers calling at Hamburg, and HHLA’s own objective of being able to handle at least two of the mega ships at CTB simultaneously.

“The number of calls made by particularly large vessels has been on the rise for quite a while, and that’s why it’s important for us to be able to provide our shipping company customers with two berths at CTB in future,” he said. “This investment ensures the high level of productivity that our customers are used to and provides for the flexibility that is necessary in handling these very large vessels.”

In addition to the new cranes, HHLA is expanding the facility’s storage capacity. “We will put four additional automated storage blocks that are currently being built into operation in 2017,” said Behn. “This will provide us with greater capacity and flexibility, which we can use to absorb the peak loads resulting from the mega-ship calls.” 

Eurogate expands

Rival terminal operating company Eurogate is also expanding its terminal, and is in the midst of a programme that will see the handling capacity of its Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg facility increase from 4M TEU to 6M TEU a year.

The group recently ordered nine diesel-electric straddle carriers from Kalmar as part of the expansion plan. They feature a load capacity of up to 60t and are capable of stacking containers up to four high. They are expected to
enter service by the end of 2016. 

Elsewhere, the Port of Kiel handled 1.8% more cargo in the first six months of 2016 than it did in H1 2015. A total of 3.1 Mt was processed. There is considerable optimism for the rest of the year, with the port’s management excited about prospects from its existing clients and several new services that have signed agreements to call at the port. 

“A new liner service from Sundsvall in Sweden will help boost growth in the Ostuferhafen,” explained Dirk Claus, managing director of the Port of Kiel. “Since July, our new customers SCA and Iggesund Paperboard have had ro-ro services calling at Kiel once a week to deliver paper and high-value cardboard packaging products. From October, this liner service will be increased to two sailings a week.” The port’s intermodal traffic also proved robust in H1 2016,
with Claus saying that 14,600 consignments had been moved by rail. This was up 5.7% on the previous year.

“We are registering a constantly increasing demand for rail cargo transport services,” added Claus. “By the end of the year, we want to transfer a record 30,000 consignments onto rail wagons.” In the port’s dry bulk sector, while Kiel’s imports of gravel from Norway jumped 30%, coal imports fell. This is because the local coal-fired power station is being replaced with a gas-powered facility.

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This complete item is approximately 1000 words in length, and appeared in the August 2016 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 16. To access this issue download the PDF here.