The Hamburg Giant shows a downward projection

The almighty Port of Hamburg, Germany’s largest port and one of the most important in the world due to its privileged location, is still unable to recover the highest volume of container handling it obtained in 2014.

In the first semester of 2018, it handled 66,5 million tons, which means 5% less compared to the same time period in 2017. One of the main reasons is attributed to the decrease in bulk activity.

Regarding container traffic, the activity reached 4,3 million TEUs, 2,7% less than last year. What happened, then, with the great Port of Hamburg? The decrease points to several factors, some of which are the decrease of empty containers handling, a lower number of transshipments in cargo ships, and the rise of container activity via railway, to name a few.

The volume of TEUs reached in 2017 was 8,84 million, which is far below the 9,72 million TEUs of 2014, and even less, but not for much, the 8,9 million TEUs of 2016, clearly showing a downward trend.

Even so, Hamburg remains holding the upper hand in the Baltic region and its concern to maintain this position, recover the growth and hold it. Its biggest asset to achieve these goals is to bet for the fluvial networks, which can give them a huge potential advantage of 40.000 kilometers of navigable channels and 200 inland ports.