Hamburg Box Traffic Plunges 28.7 Percent

Hamburg's container traffic plunged 28.7 percent in the first six months of 2009 from a year ago, much deeper than declines at close rivals Rotterdam and Antwerp amid collapsing box imports from its key Asia markets.

But Germany's biggest port said it had hit the bottom of the market as container traffic posted modest gains in the second quarter.

Hamburg handled 3.6 million 20-foot equivalent units in the first half, ceding its second ranking among Europe's box ports to Antwerp which saw container traffic fall 18.5 percent in the period to just over 3.6 million TEUs.

Top ranked Rotterdam, which has lost ground to Hamburg and Antwerp in recent years, booked a 15 percent decline in first half box traffic to 4.6 million TEUs.

The collapse in Hamburg's traffic reflected its position as Europe's top port for Asian container shipments which fell 25.1 percent to 2.1 million TEUs in the first half of the year. Traffic to and from China shrunk by 26.6 percent to 1.2 million TEUs.

The port was also hard hit by the slump in short sea feeder traffic in the Baltic region, especially imports into Russia.

Hamburg's overall traffic in the first half of 2009 contracted 23.7 percent to 54.2 million metric tons, compared with a 19.9 percent decline in Antwerp to 77 million metric tons and a 13.4 percent drop in Rotterdam to 185 million metric tons.

The port claimed comparison with the first half of 2008 does not give an accurate picture as traffic was still growing strongly a year ago before the onset of the global economic downturn in the second half of 2008.

" Despite the negative results, the cargo volumes in the first half of 2009 give us reason to be optimistic, since our assessment is that we have hit bottom and cargo handling … has become generally stable," said Claudia Roller, the port's marketing chief.

"We are expecting a positive trend in the second half of the year…. there has been a small gain in container transport since April and up through June," Roller said.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.