Hamburg posts flat 2017

Container volumes at the Port of Hamburg fell by 1% to 8.8m teu in 2017 which the port attributed to delays in dredging the Elbe and economic sanctions on trade with Russia.

Throughput of loaded containers remained flat at 7.6m teu while volumes of empty boxes fell by 88,000 teu to 1.2m teu.

According to the facility, the restrictions in force on the Elbe – whereby larger ships can only arrive and depart at high tide – are causing shipowners to use available transport space to primarily shift loaded boxes, but are using other Northern European ports for their empty containers.