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Making Hamburg Europe's preferred port

M. Ramesh

Recently in Hamburg

THE Port of Hamburg, the gateway to a market of some 400 million consumers and $1 billion worth of export trade, is being expanded ``to keep pace with the exponential growth in trade predicted for the next decade''.

Work on the DM 2-billion project began in 1998 and, when complete in 2003, the new complex at Altenwerden (located to the South of the existing port estate) will provide a container terminal capable of handling 1.9 million TEU a year. The first phase of this project is expected to be completed by last 2001, Mr Bengt van Beuningen, Director, Marketing and Public Relations, told Business Line here recently.

The container terminal will be fully automated, using the `double rail-mounted gantry' system. All container movements within the terminal will be carried out entirely by remote control. ``The terminal will also feature 14 double-hoist, double trolley ty pe container cranes on 1,400 metres of quayside, with a stacking area of 30,000 TEU capacity,'' says the Port of Hamburg's handbook.

According to Mr Beuningen, the port today handles around 3.7 million TEU of container traffic a year, and after the Altenwerden and other expansion projects on hand are completed, will be able to handle up to 8 million TEUs a year, by 2010.

When complete, Altenwerder will occupy a space of 215 hectares. (Some of the land would be reclaimed from the water. Between 1980 and 1994, the port gained an additional 34 hectares of land by infilling projects. The latest investments will add a further 42 hectares to the port's operational land). The Altenwerder container terminal would face no problem in getting business.

The handbook mentions that port users have already demonstrated their commitment to Altenwerder by setting up operations in the industrial sites at Altenwerder-West, next to the terminal that is coming up now. Oceangate Distribution, P&O Nedloyd Global L ogistics and Schneider Mail Order are already established there, and Sharp Electronics has built its new European Logistics Centre on the site.

Altenwerden is the biggest project. The terminal comes under Hamburger Hafen und Lagerhaus Gesellschaft (HHLA), the company that operates three large container terminals in the port. Some other terminals are also under expansion. The Eurogate terminal be longs to Eurokai, which incidentally merged with Bremer Lagerhaus Gesellschaft, making the merged entity the largest container terminal operating group in Europe.

The Eurogate terminal today handles 1 million TEU. It is proposed to expand this to 1.6 m TEU. The facilities will include a container yard, 14 container gantry cranes, nine rail-mounted gantry cranes, 54 straddle cranes and a storage capacity of 35,500 TEU. There will also be an integrated rail-yard for intermodal combined transport.

Apart from this, HHLA's two other terminals -- Burchardkai and TCT Tollerort also have expansion programmes. Besides the four specialist container terminals -- Burchardkai, TCT Tollerort, Eurogate and Unikai -- Hamburg offers container handling capacity at its many multi-purpose cargo facilities. Between them these terminals offer 0.5 million TEU. Some of the terminals are also under expansion programmes. This is how Hamburg Port expects its container capacity to increase from 3.7 m TEU now to 8 m TEU b y 2010.

With all these expansion projects, the port authorities are gung-ho about the future. ``We want to position Hamburg as an alternative to Rotterdam,'' Mr Beuningen said.

Mr Beuningen feels that Hamburg has a unique locational advantage. The city is described as the most easterly Atlantic port and the most westerly for the Baltic. Some 50 million people live in the ten countries surrounding the Baltic sea. Besides, Hambur g is the largest port in Germany, a powerful economy of affluent consumers. Furthermore, the port is at the mouth of river Elbe, which affords inland waterway movement of cargo, taking goods right inside the country.

All these make Hamburg a good transshipment centre. Already, feeder services to and from the Nordic countries, Russia and the Baltic countries handle 1.3 million TEU, which accounts for more than 20 per cent of the port's cargo throughput. There are now 110 feeder sailings in and out of Hamburg every week, mainly to the Scandinavian countries. Apart from these, Germany's hinterland also brings about 10 million tonnes of cargo, through the Elbe river.

In order to make better use of the port, a dredging operation was undertaken last year at a cost of DM 300 million, which increased the draught (of the Elbe channel) from 12.8 metres to 15 metres, allowing the world's largest container ships to enter the port in fully loaded condition. But the Germans are not satisfied. ``Some of our politicians want the draught to be further increased to 18 metres, which is the currently a topic of debate,'' Mr Beuningen said.

Last year, Hamburg handled 81 million tonnes of traffic of various descriptions, in addition to the 10 million tonnes transshipped from inland waterways. Forecasts are that this will surpass the 100-million mark before 2010.

The unification of Germany in 1990 was good for the Hamburg port, as it opened up an eastern hinterland of 80 million consumers. Today, the port authorities are looking at the expansion of EU -- the developments during recent Nice Summit were watched wit h great interest. When the former Eastern Bloc countries are also taken into the economic fold of EU, Hamburg expects further expansion of its business.

Even today, the Hamburg port is one of the busiest ports in the world. In 1999, there were over 12,000 seafaring vessel departures from Hamburg, apart from inland waterway vessels. Some 25 full container line services operate out of Hamburg. Over 51 per cent of the port's business is with ports in Asian countries.

The port city

An interesting development is happening at the Hamburg port, which is more related to the city than the port. The HafenCity (Port City) scheme will return some area of the port land to the city. Some historic warehouses -- Hamburg is a Hanseatic city, wi th a long history of trading -- will be converted into residential accommodation.

The HafenCity will include residential portions, offices, retail space, leisure facilities, a museum for historic ships and a custom-built cruise ship terminal.

The first phase will begin in the historic Sandtorhafen -- Hamburg's first enclosed dock basin -- and will then move on to the Cruise Centre on the existing Grasbrook Terminal. The Cruise Centre will provide moorings for cruise vessels.

Hamburg Cruise Centre e.V., the organisation promoting the cruise terminal, believes that Hamburg has the potential to become one of Europe's top cruise destinations. It attracts five million visitors every year. More than 35 cruise vessels have announce d their call at Hamburg facilities this year.