In the first three months of 2012 the Port of Hamburg achieved total throughput of 32.6 million tons (+ 3.8 percent). At 2.2 million TEU (20-ft standard containers), throughput on the container handling that predominates in Hamburg as a universal port was 5.2 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2011. Compared to the main ports further West, Hamburg thus gained additional market share and strengthened its position as the Northern European hub for container traffic; Rotterdam’s throughput was down by 3.9 percent, while Antwerp’s increase was comparatively minimal at 0.7 percent.

In the first quarter of 2012 total seaborne cargo throughput in Germany’s largest universal port reached a volume of 32.6 million tons (+ 3.8 percent). The Port of Hamburg performed especially strongly on general cargo throughput and managed a positive result on overall throughput despite some downturns in the bulk goods area.

By comparison with the first quarter of 2011, on general cargo throughput the Port of Hamburg achieved a 7.9 percent advance to 23.1 million tons. Growth here was primarily powered by the strong trend in exports of containerized general cargoes. Here the Port of Hamburg handled export volume of 11.4 million tons in the first three months of the year, representing an increase of 11.1 percent. Europe‘s second largest container port also performed well on imports of containerized general cargoes, with volume of 11.2 million tons representing 5.5 percent growth.

“We are delighted that with a 5.2 percent rise in container throughput in the first quarter, the Port of Hamburg is markedly ahead of the 2.4 percent average growth for the four major ports in the North Range,” comments Claudia Roller, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing: “The excellent result in this segment is what triggered the Port of Hamburg’s overall growth in the first quarter of 2012. For the remainder of the year we are reckoning on a further increase in total throughput.”

“We are headed in the right direction and have gained notable market shares. This is indicative for competitiveness of the Port of Hamburg”, stresses Jens Meier, HPA managing director. “Considering container handling figures and the market shares in the northern European Ports range the Port of Hamburg even surpasses forecasts of the 2010 ISL potential analysis.”

In the first quarter of 2012 altogether 1.2 million TEU (- 5.0 percent) were handled in seaborne container traffic with Asia. The Port of Hamburg’s marketing organization assumes that the trend in container volumes in the Asia trade has primarily been influenced since the beginning of the year by reductions in capacity and the cessation of some liner services. “Downturns in the Asia trade are a momentary phenomenon caused by restructuring of various liner services. However, we are expecting new East Asia container liner services in the Port of Hamburg in the course of the first half year,” says Claudia Roller.

The trend in container throughput with the Baltic area in the first quarter of 2012 was very positive. Increases were also achieved in the Europe and America trades. Container traffic with the Baltic region achieved a noteworthy increase of 19.6 percent and reached 531,000 TEU. As the easternmost seaport in the North Range, the Port of Hamburg is the most significant foreign trade hub for foreign trade with the Baltic region: a high proportion of the cargoes exchanged between the countries of Northern & Eastern Europe and overseas is routed in the transhipment trade by feedership via the Port of Hamburg. In the Baltic region, Russia and Finland are the Port of Hamburg’s most significant trading partners for seaborne container transport. With around 151 sailings per week, Hamburg continues to offer the densest network anywhere in Northern Europe of feeder links with the entire Baltic region. In addition, new feeder service to the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries produced a distinct advance with 41,000 TEU (+ 37.6 percent) and 232,000 TEU (+ 8.1 percent), respectively. Altogether, in the fi