After a difficult 2009, Port of Hamburg expects moderate growth for 2010

With 110 million tons of sea-borne cargo handled in 2009, a year impacted by the global economic and financial markets crisis, Germany biggest universal port fell short of the previous year result by around 30 million tons (-21.4%).

Improvements are in sight for the year 2010, and port-related industries anticipate a moderate level of growth. Claudia Roller, Chairwoman of the Port of Hamburg Marketing Association yesterday presented the cargo-handling figures for 2009 at the annual Port of Hamburg press conference.

With a total transhipment volume of 110.4 million tons in what was a difficult year for the entire port-related industries and shipping sector, we recorded an exceptionally severe decline in the history of our port to date.

In the period from January to December 2009, the terminals at the Port of Hamburg handled some 30 million tons 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, said Roller.

In 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 has bottomed out, and the Port of Hamburg is once again headed for moderate growth, said Roller confidently.

The fact that the global economy is emerging from the deepest recession in decades more quickly than anticipated last year is also the subject of forecasts in current publications by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). we take the view that Germany export-intensive economy will benefit from the growth in global trade as early as 2010.

An additional factor here is that the People Republic of China, the key foreign trade partner for the Port of Hamburg, will generate increasing merchandise flows carried by sea as their export sector picks up again.

As Germany biggest universal port and the most significant hub for traffic between Asia and China on the one hand, and northern Europe and the Baltic states on the other, the Port of Hamburg will benefit from these positive trends as early as the year 2010, and we can expect overall growth to reach three to four per cent, said Roller.<Korea Shipping Gazette>