Asia-to-Hamburg boxes fall 25pc, but India-Hamburg only down 5pc

THE Port of Hamburg handled 54.2 million metric tons of cargo in the first half of the year, a drop of 23.7 per cent year on year.

Hit by a 25.1 per cent year-on-year decline, Asian containers still accounted for 2.1 million TEU of the Germany's largest container port's first half throughput of 3.6 million TEU.

Bucking the trend India and Pakistan container volume fell only five per cent year on year to 131,000 TEU at the port which was hit by an overall year-on-year box decline of 28.7 per cent, said port authorities.

Since many Asian containers are transshipped by feeder vessels through Hamburg to Baltic ports, the decline severely impacted on overall numbers because transhipment boxes are counted twice, once on arrival by ship and again when they depart by ship.

Hamburg handled a total of 30 million tons of imports, down 26.5 per cent. Exports fared better, though, falling only 19.9 per cent year on year to 24.2 million tons in the first half.

General cargo, of which containers are 97 per cent, declined 27.8 per cent to 37 million tonnes year on year.

The total volume of bulk cargo handled in Hamburg amounted to 17.2 million tonnes in the first six months of this year, a decrease of 13.1 per cent year on year.

"We are expecting a positive trend in cargo volumes in the second half. There has been a small gain in container transport since April through June," said the port's marketing chief Claudia Roller.

(Source: www.schednet.com)