The Port of Hamburg is expecting an improved year through 2010 as it looks to recover from a difficult 2009 with moderate growth across port-related industries.
According to the Port Marketing Association, 100m tonnes of sea-borne cargo was handled at Hamburg in 2009, a drop of 21.4 per cent (or around 30m tonnes) that was mainly attributed to the global economic and financial market crisis.
'With a total transhipment volume of 110.4m tonnes in what was a difficukt year for the entire port-related industries and shipping sector, we recorded an exceptionally severe decline in the history of our port to date,' said Claudia Roller, chairwoman of the Port of Hamburg marketing association, at the group's annual press conference. 'In the period from January to December 2009, the terminals at the Port of Hamburg handled some 30m tonnes of cargo less than in the year 2008.
'However, since the third quarter of 2009, we have seen initial signs of a stabilising trend, and we are now witnessing a slight upward trend again,' Ms Roller added. 'An evaluation of the figures for sea-borne cargo handling in the fourth quarter of 2009 showed that in the second half of the year, transhipments of sea-borne cargo picked up by 3.7 per cent compared with the first half of the year. The negative trend is bottoming out, and the Port of Hamburg is once again headed for moderate growth.'
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