29 February 2024 (Lloyd's List) - AN UPTICK in the second half of the year was not enough to prevent Hamburg port volumes sliding again in 2023 as geopolitics and economic challenges continued to weigh on the port.
Total seaborne cargo throughput fell 4.7% year on year to 114.3m tonnes, but container liftings were down 6.9% at 7.7m teu.
The full year container throughput was an improvement on the first half, which had seen volumes fall by over 10%, indicating there was some recovery in the second half of 2023.
“When we look at the development of our throughput figures, we are on the same level as our northern European competitors and are holding our own well compared with other ports,” said Port of Hamburg marketing chief executive Axel Mattern. “The decline is primarily due to the difficult geopolitical and economic situation that we all are facing.”
On the positive side, bulk cargo remained stable, and trade with the US increased to 653,000 teu, up 8% on 2022.
Cargo from China, Hamburg’s largest trading partner at 2.2m teu, was behind the increased number of ULC calls at Hamburg, which was up 15% at 272 vessels.
“The fact that so many of the world’s largest containerships call at the port of Hamburg clearly demonstrates the port’s capability and reliability,” said Hamburg Port Authority chief commercial office Friedrich Stuhrmann.
“At the same time, it underlines the need to keep optimising the infrastructure for these vessels and to ensure the effective maintenance of the Elbe federal waterway.”
Despite the decline in total volumes, hinterland transport to and from Hamburg remained “robust”, falling only 4.7% to 5.1m teu. But Hamburg’s role as a feeder hub for Russia and the Baltic continues to decline, with transhipment volumes down 11% to just 2.6m teu.
Preliminary figures from key Hamburg terminal operator Hamburger Hafen und Logistik reflected the downturn, with revenues falling 8.7% to €1.5bn in 2023 as container volumes fell 7.5% to 5.9m teu.
“The war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, high inflation rates and increased interest rates had an impact on the global economy and increasingly dampened economic development over the course of the year,” said chief executive Angela Titzrath.
“This also had an impact on the entire logistics industry and HHLA’s business, causing a result just below our expectations. Despite these challenging conditions, we managed to hold our own. We are consistently implementing our investments in automation to increase efficiency and are continuing to drive forward our activities to expand sustainable and networked logistics solutions.”
HHLA said revenue and earnings performance had been affected by a year-on-year reduction in storage fees in the container segment and the decline in throughput and transport volumes due to the economic situation.
“Volume development in the container segment was also affected by the loss of feeder traffic with Russia as a result of EU sanctions and the war-related decrease in cargo volumes at the Ukrainian Container Terminal Odessa,” it said.
HHLA will release its audited full-year results on March 21.
