Weak trade from China and Russia hits Hamburg volumes

Container throughput at the Port of Hamburg fell by 9.2% to 6.7m teu in the first three quarters of this year, mainly owing to meagre trade levels from China and Russia.

Volumes for Russia, the German port’s third largest partner in container traffic, were down by 36% to 323,000 teu while throughput with China fell by 14.9% to 1.9m teu.

Owing to China’s depressed outlook, the usual seasonal jump in volume over August and September caused by supplies for Christmas, almost completely failed to materialise.