Due to changes in the global liner alliances, the agreement follows commercial negotiations in anticipation of the termination of Hamburg Süd’s current slot purchase arrangements on the East-West trades.

“We are pleased with this agreement. Accommodating these additional volumes enables improved utilisation in our fleet and in turn provides opportunities to enhance our customer offering on select trades in our East-West network”, says Søren Toft, Chief Operating Officer, Maersk Line.

“Hamburg Süd is very satisfied about the agreement with Maersk. Our customers will benefit from extended port coverage, best transit times, and an increased number of loops in the East–West trades,” explains Frank Smet, Member of the Executive Board of Hamburg Süd.

The agreement is scheduled to begin 1 April (subject to maritime filing requirements being satisfied). It covers the Asia-North Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific trades. Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd are party to a number of such operational agreements worldwide. Today’s agreement is not related to the announcement of Maersk Line’s acquisition of Hamburg Süd (see press release of 1 December 2016).

The parties will disclose information about network changes and schedules in the coming week.

In the fourth quarter, gross reported volumes grew by 6.0% year-on-year driven by strong growth in Asia Pacific and Europe. UAE handled 3.7 million TEU in 4Q2016 down marginally by 0.7% year-on-year. The Americas and Australia region delivered a broadly stable volume performance during this period.

At a consolidated level, our terminals handled 29.2 million TEU during 2016, a 0.4% improvement in performance on a reported basis and down 1.6% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.

Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem commented:

“Despite the challenging market conditions, particularly at our flagship Jebel Ali Port, our portfolio continues to deliver ahead-of-market growth, which once again demonstrates the benefits of operating a globally diversified portfolio.

“We are pleased to see volumes stabilising in the UAE and as we look ahead into 2017, we expect our new developments in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Nhava Sheva (India), London Gateway (United Kingdom) and Yarimca (Turkey) to drive growth in our portfolio.

“We will continue to maintain capital expenditure discipline by bringing on capacity in line with demand, while focusing on targeting higher margin cargo, improving efficiencies and managing costs to drive profitability. Given the resilient volume performance of our portfolio, we are well placed to meet full year 2016 market expectations.”

The figure actually rose to 102.8 million tonnes (+4.70%), the grounds for the Port of Algeciras joining the select group of top European ports with an annual activity over the 100-million tonne mark: a milestone that – to now – only Rotterdam (Netherlands), Antwerp (Belgium) and Hamburg (Germany) can boast. “This is an historic moment that doubles the volume reached by our Port in 2001, when we reached the heady figure of 50-million tonnes. Moreover, and as confirmed by the European Commission via EuroStat last September, the Port of Algeciras boasts the highest annual growth in the top ten EU Ports from 1974 to 2014,”says a PR representative of the port. According to a port press r reléase, at the close of 2016, Algeciras was confirmed as the top Spanish and Mediterranean port for total cargo throughput. According to the port PR team this record was made possible by the positive behaviour of container throughput, as well as the ro-ro traffic on the lines serving the Strait of Gibraltar. “Our terminals handled 4.76 million TEUs (+5.40%). Ro-ro traffic returned a figure of 313,327 HGVs (+7.80%), with the Algeciras-Tanger Med line taking the lion’s share of 263,394 units (+9.90%). These figures, together with the 27.30 million tonnes of Liquid Bulks – remaining stable at a level comparative to the previous year (-0.18%), constituted more than 92% of the business volume at the Port of Algeciras.”