Hamburg sees improvement in Q1-2010

Imports overall recorded 16.7m tonnes (6%), whilst exports also increased to a total of 11.9m tonnes (2.7%). General cargo handling was the dominant segment, with growth of 1.1% to a total of 18.6m tonnes. Bulks saw the largest growth to 9.9m tonnes, an increase of 11.9%.

At 1.8m teu, container handling was still below the comparable figure for the first quarter of 2009, although loaded containers showed an upward trend rising 1.6%, with the March figure of 642,000 teu (10.9%) well above the previous year’s result.

Container transhipments with the Asian regions totalled 1.1m teu, just -2.1% short of the previous year’s result, whilst traffic to and from America amounted to 182,000 teu (9.2% positive). African routes recorded growth at 47,000 teu, (7.4%) and the European distribution services, an important segment for Hamburg, totalled 470,000 teu (12.9%).