Eurogate volume boosted by Bremerhaven growth

The Eurogate Group said container volume at the terminals it manages surpassed 14 million TEUs for the first time in 2008.

   Helped mostly by 12.4 percent growth at the Eurogate facility in Bremerhaven, which handled 5.5 million TEUs in 2008, the group handled 14.2 million TEUs for the year, even as volume declined 4.3 percent at Bremerhaven and 9.8 percent at Hamburg in December.

   The terminal operator said that using dedicated terminals in Bremerhaven (with shipping lines assigned specific terminals) paid dividends. MSC's dedicated terminal, for instance, saw a 33.9 percent increase in volume.

   While volume was strong at Bremerhaven, despite the downturn, it fell 7.7 percent at Hamburg, the group's other terminal in Germany, to 2.7 million TEUs. Meanwhile, Eurogate's terminal in Cagliari saw throughput decline 2.1 percent to 5.7 million TEUs. Volume at that terminal was hampered by the defection of lines serving the Mediterranean hub, but volume rebounded 12.9 percent in December, when the Grand Alliance carriers and UASC began using the terminal in fall.

   All container terminals are currently feeling the pinch of the economic crisis," said Emanuel Schiffer, chairman of the EUROGATE Group, in a statement. “The shipping industry is going through choppy seas and we have no way of knowing how profound and how prolonged the present situation is likely to be. For 2009 we are expecting a single-digit drop in volumes. But we are nevertheless optimistic with regard to long-term container traffic development.   Eurogate's latest terminal development in Tangier, which opened in October, handled 64,000 TEUs last year.

Source: American Shipper