[ Port of Hamburg Extension Work Under Way ]

What the national and international port economy has long been demandi
ng- Hamburg’s port extension has now become reality. Extension work b
egan on September 24 this year. The first two berths and adjoining lan
d sites will be operational by 2001, the entire Altenwerder project is
scheduled to be completed in 2003.
At the heart of the planned logistics centre will be four berths for
“mega ships” with a total quay length of 1,400 metres. On the land s
ide of the cargo handling area, which will be 400 metres deep, there a
re plans for pre- and post-carriage services, a freight centre, inter
modal cargo facilities and other carrier or transport services. Furthe
rmore, the new Altenwerder Terminal will have its own rail terminal at
the western end of the port extension area.
With a total container turnover of 2.9million TEUs in 1995 and double-
digit growth averaged over the past decade, the Port of Hamburg has an
extremely successful record. It is currently Europe’s second biggest
container port an No. 6 in the world. Its share of the North Range ma
rket rose from around 19% in 1985 to around 25% in 1995
The Port’s growth in recent years was safeguarded by the development
and optimization of existing facilities. In the last 10 years, for exa
mlpe, some 175 hectares of land were restructured and four cerths deve
loped or built to accommodate large ships
Now the Port is to be extended by around 260 hectares of state-of-the-
art facilities in Altenwerder so it can continue to exploit the opport
unities presented by Hamburg’s new economic-geographical location aft
er the opening up of Eastern Europe and German reunification.