Port of Hamburg: Born with God's Gift and Gained Success from Being Flexible

In 1880, one vessel with the fixed cruise line from Hamburg to China set forth for its initial trip, which opens the new era of constant shipping trade between China and Germany. In fact, now over 400 Chinese companies gather in the glorious metropolitan along the Elbe River where attract more Chinese companies than any other European cities. Now the universal Port of Hamburg is one of the most important cargo hubs in Europe. This time during the period of German Munich Exhibition TLC (Transport Logistics China) the journalist has the honor to take an interview to Dr. Jürgen Sorgenfrei, Chairman of the Port of Hamburg to appreciate the charm of this Northern Europe leading port.

J: Welcome to China to attend the TLC exhibition. So what are the goals for your port to have the booth and present the show this time?
Dr. Jürgen Sorgenfrei: The trade with China is very important for us, which could be explained just by 2 figures here: 10 million containers in TEU out of which we have 3.5 million from China. So absolutely China is our NO. 1 trading partner. We have a lot of trade in the past years and we expect more in the future. For Chinese exporters and importers transfer goods to or from Europe we want to speak to them, just hear and listen what' s their intention for the future. Do they expect more growth, do they see some problems such as the high-energy cause and what could we do to find good solutions together in touch with all the people coming around.

J: In the fierce competitions between ports nowadays, it is said that Port of Hamburg is born with God’s Gift—its favorable location. So can you make an introduction upon this "gift" ?
Dr. Jürgen Sorgenfrei: Yes our location is the very big advantage in the fierce competition. Our port lies almost equal-distant between the North Sea in the west and the Baltic Sea in the east. Under 1990 when the Soviet Union broke down, Hamburg was at the end of the western world and we are the closest to the West and East Europe. And now in countries like Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden and so on, we have a lot of trader companies and we are the closest port to the new developing market, where many countries around us have fantastic GDP growths and the fantastic location, by the way, is also why Port of Hamburg in container business grows faster last year than our competitors.

J: Thank you for your profound explanation upon the port’s location. Could we have more information upon the port' s security?
Dr. Jürgen Sorgenfrei: For the port' s security part, the "Law to improve Security in the Port of Hamburg" implemented the main elements of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS). In addition, customs authorities work closely with the U.S. customs service as part of the "Container Security Initiative (CSI)" in order to identity, examine and seal high-risk containers at the earliest possible stage. And Hamburg Maritime Police (USP), the enforcement authority for sovereign tasks in the Port of Hamburg and the customs head office at the Port of Hamburg are also the institution for guarding the port' s security.

J: When concerning the success, no matter for a person or a port, she must have some special character to achieve her brilliance. So what' s the outstanding character of your port?
Dr. Jürgen Sorgenfrei: I think one important factor is that you must be flexible. We have the flexibility so that we are flexible to quick react to everything, being innovative and that we have the greatest rail terminal in Europe also proves this character. For example in front of 1997´s crisis in Russia and Japan, our reaction is very fast since seeing the development before coming up and we took a prompt reaction. Another example is our CTA Container Terminal Altenwerder: since 2002, we have built a new container terminal in accordance with the AGV-system (Automatic guided vehicles) because we must be flexible and react to the German labor situation. The labor costs per hour are comparatively high, and so we had to find new solutions; and that' s what we did: the AGV-system, an innovative terminal layout and a new generation of gantry cranes. Hamburg based HHLA CTA-terminal was one of the first European main customers of ZPMC (Shanghai).
Our flexibility in being innovative is not limited to the port. The public transport inside the city of Hamburg, for example, employees since a few years hydric engines, which means that our bus within city runs just water. This is a big invention for reduce the pollution and cost saving and could be the next step to overcome the dependency of oil.
For the rail terminal’s part, these immense daily rail transport volumes makes the rail as the most important mode for Port of Hamburg in long distance land transport, which contributes a lot for the multi-transportation in the sea port' s hinterland traffic and forms Port of Hamburg as the NO. 1 rail terminal. Since 1999, the amount for rail transportation has increased nearly 80% and reaches 40 million tons every year, out of which the amount of container transportation increases 170% and reaches 1.8 million TEU. The exploration of ports, the construction of new rail terminals and the strengthen in getting touch with the inner land has become an project and to 2015, the ports plans to handle 4.5 million TEU per year.

J: Thank you for your presence for DIALOGUE and share your port’s profile with the members of Shippingchina.com who has 200 thousand members with 2 million clicks per day. So what would you like to say to the members here?
Dr. J. Sorgenfrei: There is only one world – let' s work together for a better future! The Port of Hamburg considers itself as the main hub for central and Eastern Europe. Together with Chinese Partners, we can move the world!

Journalist: Betty Chen