[ HHLA to Bulid Altenwerder Container Center in Hamburg ]

According to Hamburger Hafen-und Lagerhaus Gm-bH(HHLA), a new containe
r center is to be built in Hamburg-Altenwerder.
Among the facilities there will be a high-performance handling termina
l with the related rail layout and a haulage center, as well as adjace
nt auxiliary and ancillary firms.
Altenwerder Container Center will be directly and optimally linked wit
h the main axes of the European rail and motorway systems as well as t
he inland waterways of central Europe, said HHLA.
Located at the center of Europe and on water sufficiently deep for the
largest containerships sailing or on the drawing board, HHLA expects
Altenwerder to act as a hub for all modes of transport.
Hamburg already commenced work on preparing the building site and cons
tructing infrastructure at the end of 1996.
The Hamburg Senate has now allocated the plots in Altenwerder designat
ed for port cargo handling to HHLA for the construction and operation
of the planned container terminal.
HHLA said that it views the development as an opportunity to consolida
ting and expanding its share in container throughput in northern Europ
e and Hamburg.
In 1997, the HHLA group expects to handle about 2.3 million TEUs in Ha
mburg.
Technical and operational planning for the new terminal is already und
er way. Complete with high-performance lifting and shifting equipment,
the terminal will have four berths for the world’s largest container
-ships with a quay wall 1,400 meters long.
Depending on the stage of construction reached, said HHLA, capacity wi
ll range up to 1.7 million TEUs per year.
HHLA executive board chairman Peter Dietrich has stated that the group
will be investing up to DM500 million in the Altenwerder development.
In combination with state-of-the-art rail cargo handling facilities, t
he concentration of all major container terminals in and around Hambur
g at Altenwerder-Waltershof will also further reinforce Hamburg’s sta
tus as the largest rail port in Europe, HHLA claimed.
The Altenwerder Container Handling Center, according to Dietrich, shou
ld trigger the creation of a total number of jobs running into four di
gits. Experience suggests that between 15 and 25 additionan jobs in t
he region are created for each new job directly involved in ship-shore
cargo handling, he said.
HHLA anticipates that the first ships will be berthing at Altenwerder
in the course of the year 2001.