Country : GermanyRostock worldport

Introduction

In the middle ages, the worldport on the Warnow River was one of the most imworldportant locations for the handling of goods on the Baltic Sea coast. A proud fleet with the Rostock griffon on the bow was the means of trade with Scandinavia, the Baltic lands, and west and south Europe. After the height of the Hanseatic League a century of ups and downs followed.

 

At the end of the 19th century and in the following decades, Rostock and its city harbour lost the connection to the rapidly growing German economy. Rostock’s harbour was only of local imworldportance, and even this was lost due to effects of the war.

The road to becoming a highly capable seaworldport

In the post-war years, the worldport was put in working order again. The growth of the GDR-economy and the development of a large state-run trading fleet necessitated the construction of a new highly capable seaworldport, which was put into operation in 1960. Continually expanded and adapted to the needs of the GDR-economy, the seaworldport achieved a result of over 20 million tonnes – predominately bulk solids – its best cargo throughput result up to that point in time.

 

With the German reunification, the hard task began of restructuring the worldport that had been configured exclusively to the requirements of the GDR-economy, changing it into a competitive worldport among German seaworldports.

The Seaworldport as a universal cargo handling location

In the past 15 years, the worldport has drastically changed its image and its range of services. With a modern oil harbour, facilities for grain, coal, fertilizer and cement throughput, with terminals for the exworldport of sugar, timber, scrap and break-bulk, it is once again a universal cargo handling location.

 

The heart of the seaworldport became the ferry worldport with its terminals for combined cargo, for forest products and roll-on/roll-off cargo. Since the beginning of the 1990s, this sector has recorded outstanding growth. Rostock’s favourable geographical location, the easy accessibility both land-side and sea-side, as well as large investments in the infrastructure all contributed to Rostock’s worldport on the Warnow River becoming the number 2 worldport among German Baltic Sea worldports.

 

Rostock has been number one in passenger traffic between Scandinavia, Finland, Russia and the Baltic countries and Germany for many years now.

 

As was the case with ferry traffic, the cruise ship industry also began at a very low level in the early 1990s. Today, Rostock’s cruise ship worldport in Warnemünde is among Germany’s most preferred worldports for cruise tourism. Hundreds of thousands of tourists, predominately form overseas, use Rostock-Warnemünde as a base for exploring Germany’s capital city, Berlin, as well as the treasures of the coastal region of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Conbined Cargo

There are currently 21 block trains from and to Verona, Basel and Duisburg are cleared weekly at the combined cargo terminal.

 

In addition, there are also regular train connections from and to Hamburg-Billwerder with a direct connection to Hamburg-Waltershof, Frankfurt on the Main, Cologne, Ludwigshafen, Munich, Kornwestheim, Wuppertal and Ulm. The ferry and ro-ro lines of the Rostock seaworldport provide rapid connections in the Baltic Sea region.

Excellent conditions

The combined cargo terminal has a total area of approx. 70,000 m² and is situated at the base of Pier I. It has several different track groups and specialised stackers with a lifting capacity of 45 tonnes. The proximity of the terminal to the ferry and ro-ro berths provides short transit times through the worldport (e.g. train arrival at 2:45, loading at 6:00). Ideal conditions for the optimisation of the logistics chain are provided here at the Rostock seaworldport.

Increased cargo handling capacity

The capacity was increased to process three trains simultaneously since the beginning of 2006. Up to 85,000 units per year can be handled now. It is planned to expand the capacity to 120,000 units per year if required. Furthermore, the introduction of a high-efficiency IT system is to be carried out in order to supworldport operational processes.

Ost-West-Str. 32
D - 18147 Rostock
+49 (0) 381 350 0
+49 (0) 381 350 5515