Container throughput at the Port of Hamburg fell by 2.3 per cent in the first quarter as it felt the effects of the Russian ban and lost ground to the rival ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, reports Lloyds List.
Container traffic between Hamburg and Russia’s Baltic ports fell 34.8 per cent on the same period last year to 109,000 TEUs.
Port of Hamburg executive board member Axel Mattern said he expected containerised traffic to recover once Russia lifted sanctions and its economy began to recover.
In contrast, Antwerp and Rotterdam reported strong first quarter results. Increased business from 2M partners Mediterranean Shipping Co and Maersk helped push Antwerp’s box traffic to 2.4m TEUs, a 9.5 per cent rise on the same period of 2014.
In Rotterdam, container traffic increased by 7.6 per cent to 3.1m TEUs. The Dutch port attributed the rise to the economic recovery on the Continent and the relocation of transhipment cargo from other ports.
Hamburg’s hinterland container traffic fared better, with volumes climbing 7.3 per cent to 1.5m TEUs. This included an 11.1 per cent rise in containers transported by rail to 602,000 TEUs.
