She is currently the world’s largest containership operating in a liner service and is deployed in the Europe-East Asia trade. This year China will again be further expanding its position as Hamburg’s leading trading partner for container traffic. On the basis of the first evaluation of 2014 throughput figures for container traffic with China, Port of Hamburg Marketing assumes that the three-million-TEU mark will be reached.

As the new Giant of the Seas, when fully loaded the CSCL GLOBE has dimensions of around 400 metres length, 59 metres wide and a draft of 16 metres. A slot capacity of 19,100 TEU makes this newbuild for China Shipping Container Lines one of the world’s largest containerships. The Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea will be delivering her four sisterships in the course of this year. This enormous containership will be discharging and loading around 11,000 TEU during her first call at Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg.

“During the next few years we are reckoning with ongoing growth on the East Asia-Europe trade route and want to further expand our market share on this rotation. The Port of Hamburg plays a crucial part in this as a cargo source and transhipment hub – currently we are in Hamburg every week with seven services,” said Niels Harnack, Managing Director of China Shipping Agency (Germany) GmbH, as the CSCL GLOBE made her maiden call at Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg. He also emphasized, however, that the dredging and widening of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe is urgently required so that the transport chains can be run even more efficiently. “Since the draft restrictions make it impossible for our newbuilds to sail on the Elbe fully laden, we have to leave part of the cargo in Rotterdam,” explained Harnack. One extra metre of draft on the Elbe would enable mega-containerships such as the CSCL GLOBE to transport more than 1,000 TEU more. The AEX 1 liner service on which the CSCL GLOBE is deployed, serves the following ports: Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Yantian, Singapore, Port Kelang, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Zeebrugge.

Hamburg is the Gateway to Europe for China’s foreign trade

Hamburg’s container traffic is dominated by the boxes imported from or exported to China through Germany’s largest universal port. Almost one in three of the containers handled in the Port of Hamburg originates from China or is commencing its ocean voyage to China. “After completing our evaluation of the complete throughput figures for 2014, we are assuming that we shall reach the three-million mark on container traffic with China,” forecasts Axel Mattern, Port of Hamburg Marketing Executive Board Member. Totalling 2.3 million TEU in the first nine months of 2014, container traffic with China in Hamburg produced an impressive 12.8 percent growth. On both the import and export sides, food and beverages, chemical products, machinery and equipment as well as household appliances, wooden goods, paper, pulp and printed matter, metals and metal products were among the main cargoes transported.

“Continued growth in container traffic and the increasing deployment of especially large containerships in the China trade are meanwhile dramatically underlining that we are unable to wait any longer for the dredging and widening of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe. Deepening of the channel must at all costs commence in 2015,” demands Mattern. During the first call by the CSCL GLOBE in Hamburg, China Shipping Vice President Yu Zenggang was confident that the requested deepening of the Elbe navigational channel and also the enlargement of the Waltershofer turning circle to 600 metres will be implemented. “Especially important for mega-containerships, these infrastructure measures are also of great significance for our clients, who rely on Hamburg,” emphasized Yu Zenggang.

Along with the dominant throughput volume, the total of more than 500 Chinese companies meanwhile entered in the city’s Commercial Register also indicates that foreign trade with China is deeply rooted in Hamburg. More than 700 Hamburg companies in Hamburg also maintain business relations with China. Of these, around 140 are directly represented in the People’s Republic by their own branch, an agent or a business unit. Port of Hamburg Marketing is present in Shanghai and in Hong Kong with its own representative office.

The dredger, named Ural River, is a customized Damen CSD 650 with additional safety and environmental features according to specific Van Oord requirements. In April 2015, the vessel will be operational as part of Van Oord’s dredging projects in the Caspian Sea. The vessel has been built at the Damen Yard in Nijkerk, the Netherlands.

‘Damen and Van Oord know each other very well. In early January, Damen delivered our cable laying vessel Nexus, which will be operational in March 2015. Damen’s expertise combined with Van Oord standards will result in an a fit-for-purpose addition to our fleet says Jaap de Jong, Director Van Oord’s Ship Management Department.

Twelve of the high-performance RTGs are scheduled for delivery to APM Terminals Algeciras, in Spain, while the remaining four are destined for APM Terminals Apapa, Nigeria, with delivery in one year. The new 16-wheeled RTGs, to be manufactured by Konecranes, will offer a lifting capacity of 41 tonnes, and the ability to manoeuvre containers into stacks five containers high.

APM Terminals Algeciras, the largest container terminal in the Western Mediterranean market, has recently completed upgrading cranes and quay infrastructure to accommodate Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS) of 18,000+ TEU capacity, some of which now call the terminal weekly. In addition to heightening four existing cranes in 2014, four new Ship-to-Shore (STS) gantry cranes were delivered last May. The Port of Algeciras, located at the Gibraltar Strait, is the largest in Spain, having surpassed Valencia in 2013, and is the 28th busiest globally.

The four RTGs ordered for APM Terminals Apapa, the busiest container terminal in West Africa, will bring the total fleet to 14 RTGs. A USD 135 million investment and expansion programme was announced for APM Terminals Apapa in 2011. APM Terminals has invested USD 220 million in Apapa since assuming the concession in 2006 and has significantly improved terminal productivity. APM Terminals Apapa is the largest container facility by capacity of the three ports serving Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and business center. APM Terminals Apapa has doubled container volume in the past eight years and has dramatically improved productivity for Nigeria’s inbound containers.

APM Terminals also operates a second port facility in Nigeria as well, the West Africa Container Terminal (WACT), located in the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone. So-called West Africa Maximum (WAF-Max) vessels of 4,500 TEU capacity have begun to call WACT, where APM Terminals has committed to an investment of USD 30 million for port modernisation and upgrades. The proposed new mega-port at Badagry, located 55km west of Lagos, continues to move toward development and will serve all cargo sectors, with a planned 2019 Phase I opening of a 775m two-berth container terminal, with a 17m depth alongside and an annual throughput capacity of 1.8 million TEU.