August 17 - The Port of Hamburg has reported that for the first half of 2016 total seaborne cargo throughput was down 0.9 percent on the previous year at 70.2 million tonnes.
It reported that in the first six months of 2016 containerised cargo handling totalled 4.5 million teu, a fall of 1.2 percent.
"Seaborne cargo throughput in the Port of Hamburg in the first half of the year may have been slightly lower, but the trend was noticeably more stable," said Axel Mattern, joint ceo of Port of Hamburg Marketing. "With an advance of 1.9 percent by comparison with the preceding three months, the second quarter of 2016 already signalled a discernible upward trend."
Non-containerized general cargo throughput, of oversize plant elements and ro-ro cargo, for example, remained below the previous first half-year's at 815,000 tonnes, down by 6.9 percent. On the import side, it reached 273,000 tonnes, some 5.6 percent lower. Growth in the form of project cargoes, timber and citrus fruit imports failed to offset downturns for paper, metal and vehicles.
On exports of conventional general cargoes - 7.6 percent lower at 542,000 tonnes - growth for iron, steel and wood failed to make up for lower vehicle exports.
Meanwhile, three additional container gantry cranes for Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA) Container Terminal Burchardkai arrived in Hamburg this week. They can handle the latest generation of mega-ships. This means that HHLA now has a total of eight of these gantry cranes at the CTB. As soon as the three new gantry cranes have gone into operation, CTB will be able to handle ships with a capacity of 20,000 teu or more at two berths.
© HHLA/Dietmar Hasenpusch
