Ruhr ports to collaborate on logistics

The cities of Duisburg, Essen und Gelsenkirchen have worked together for some time in a number of different fields. The partnership agreement intensifies their joint approach to developing common waterway and rail strategies, mainly to reduce environmental risks. The ports also plan to develop joint zoning and marketing concepts and to facilitate access to each other’s resources.

The logistics industry is booming in Germany. The sector employs 2.6m people and generates annual revenues of €180bn, ranking it third among the country’s industries. The Ruhr metropolitan area is particularly strong in the sector, and growth in recent years has had a sustained impact on industrial structures in the region.

The area has become a logistics cluster of excellence, with Duisburg as a hub. duisport, for example, operates a container terminal at the Marl Chemical Park together with its associates and runs a container train between Duisburg and Unna through its duisport rail subsidiary. Previously, all this cargo was trucked across the Ruhr region: the train has substantially reduced CO2 emissions in one of the most densely populated regions of Europe. It is envisaged that joint projects between the ports of Duisburg, Essen and Gelsenkirchen will result in similar benefits.