That represents growth of 6.2 percent. Both general cargo handling totalling 96.8 million tons (+ 5.7 percent) and bulk cargo handling at 42.3 million tons (+ 7.2 percent), ensured above-average growth for Germany’s largest universal port.
“The Port of Hamburg’s throughput trend is a fine signal for Hamburg and the entire Metropolitan Region. Growth of 6.2 percent is a most impressive result, underlining the tremendous effectiveness of port and logistics companies in Germany’s largest universal port,” said Axel Mattern, Port of Hamburg Marketing’s Executive Board Member at the presentation of the Port of Hamburg’s cargo handling figures for 2013. The container handling was the principal source of this growth. With throughput of 9.3 million TEU (20-ft standard containers), the increase in container traffic reached 4.4 percent. This was primarily attributable to growth in transhipment services into the North Sea and Baltic region that were 10 percent higher, plus the onset of a recovery in container traffic with Asia, and especially with China, Hamburg’s largest partner on the market.