Tide turns to Hamburg's advantage

The silver lining seems to have begun to appear for Hamburg port - that's what German maritime experts are saying - thanks to the thriving trade with Asia.

China's container lines have resumed calling at Hamburg port, which went through a difficult 2009 because of the global recession.

Things have been looking up since the start of the second quarter. Throughput has been increasing and the the recovery might even compensate for the slowdown in traffic in the first quarter.

The main driver of the recovery is the rise in traffic to China and other Asian countries. Shipping lines had slowed and, in some cases, even stopped traffic as a result of the global economic and financial crisis. But with the rise in services, Hamburg expects a further rise in container traffic in the second quarter, according to Claudia Roller, chief executive officer of port operator Hafen Hamburg Marketing.

In the first quarter of the year, Hamburg throughput with Asia was 2.1 percent below the level of the previous year - 1.1 million TEUs were handled then. China has become the most important customer of the port - every third container originates from or is destined for China.

"We presently discern clear signs of a recovery," said a spokesman of HHLA.
Hamburg serves as a transit point for shipments to the Baltic Sea region. Besides the resumption of the scheduled line routes, the economic assistance introduced by the Chinese Government is expected to stimulate trade. However, some East European countries are still struggling to recover from the global crisis, as a result of which the recovery at Hamburg port is lagging behind that at Rotterdam port.

Nonetheless, experts agree that Hamburg port has managed to reverse the negative trend. They point out that, for the first time since November 2008, the monthly volume of ocean transport was 10.5 million tonnes in March, exceeding the 10 million mark by 4.6 percent.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)