Hamburg claims market recovery over rivals

Since the second half of 2010 the port has experienced continuous improvement in container throughput, which by the end of Q3this year totalled 6.8m teu, a double-digit growth rate of 15.3%, which, it claims, is “distinctly faster” than in the ports of Antwerp (up 3.1%) and Rotterdam (up 7.7%).

In the first three quarters of 2011, 3.5m teu and 3.3m teu import/export containers were handled respectively, with all trades – European, Baltic, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, Africa and Australia/Pacific – developing positively with volume growth.

Asia trade maintained its steady upward trend, while additional liner service connections with the USA generated extremely strong growth of 65.4%, with around 198,000, bringing the USA up from 13th to 7th place among Hamburg’s top trading partners for container traffic.