Throughput Rises at Port of Hamburg as Bulk Cargo Shines

HHM / Dietmar Hasenpusch Total throughput at Germanys busiest port, the Port of Hamburg, increased by 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017 and reached 35.4 million tons. The throughput growth in Germany’s largest universal port was therefore slightly above the average 1.6 percent for the other major North Range ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Bremen/Bremerhaven, the port authority said. Contributing to the Hamburg total, bulk cargo throughput was 6.7 percent higher at 12.2 million tons. The 12-million-ton mark in the bulk cargo segment has been exceeded for the first time since record keeping began, the authority said. General cargo handling at 23.1 million tons was 0.7 percent lower. On the export side, general cargo throughput at 11.9 million tons represented growth of 3.4 percent. At 11.2 million tons, general cargo imports were somewhat lower, being down by 4.7 percent. First-quarter container throughput at 2.2 million TEU was 0.7 percent lower than in the comparable period of the previous year.