The total container turnover of the four main ports of Northern Europe - Antwerp-Bruges, Rotterdam, Bremen/Bremerhaven, and Hamburg - for the first six months was 4.6% lower than the same period last year.
At the same time, the Hamburg Port Authority recorded a slight increase in container handling in January-June 2022, despite the shrinking of trade with Russia. In total, the port’s four container terminals handled 4.4 million TEU in the first six months of the year, which is up 0.9% YoY.
China remains the most important trading partner of the Port of Hamburg, accounting for 30% of the total turnover - 1.3 million TEU for the first half of the year (up 5.8% YoY).
The United States comes second (291 thou. TEU, -3.9%), Singapore is in third place (218 thou. TEU, +6.7%), followed by Poland (166 thou. TEU, +53.2%), Sweden (157 thou. TEU, +8.3%), Finland (108 thou. TEU, +31.5%), Denmark (103 thou. TEU, +2.8%), Brazil (102 thou. TEU, -28%), Great Britain (100 thou. TEU, -19.8%), and South Korea (95 thou. TEU, -18.6%).
The increase in trade volumes with Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark was the result of the restructuring of feeder services in the Baltic Region. The use of Hamburg to serve the Baltic region as a hub for transshipping traffic has increased this year. Total first-half container transshipment throughput in Hamburg was up by 2.7% to 1.6 million TEU.