HHLA, Brunsbüttel Ports and Spedition Kruse Sign Cooperation Agreement

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), Brunsbüttel Ports GmbH and Spedition Friedrich A. Kruse jun. Internationale Spedition e.K. have signed a cooperation agreement to promote cargo transport by inland vessel on the Lower Elbe. The collaboration with the Port of Hamburg is set to be intensified.

(Brunsbüttel) On October 6, 2020, Jens Hansen, member of the board of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), Thomas Lütje, HHLA sales director, Frank Schnabel, managing director of Brunsbüttel Ports GmbH / SCHRAMM group, and Friedrich A. Kruse jun., management of Friedrich A. Kruse jun. Unternehmensgruppe, signed a cooperation agreement in the presence of Brunsbüttel’s mayor Martin Schmedtje for a strategic partnership to promote inland navigation on the Lower Elbe. The goal of the cooperation is to further promote inland navigation and the waterway transport system to shift more cargo traffic to the water.

The inland port-inland vessel-waterway transport system offers environmentally friendly, efficient, and safe transport options. The inland vessel requires relatively little energy per transport unit and is considered a reliable means of transport in terms of sustainable and economic optimization of the transport chain.

Lower Elbe Connects

The Lower Elbe connects the ChemCoast Park Brunsbüttel, the largest contiguous industrial area in Schleswig-Holstein, with international corporations and medium-sized companies from the chemical, energy, and logistics sectors, with the Port of Hamburg as a significant cargo hub for the local industrial companies. The collaboration aims, among other things, to further expand cargo traffic with inland vessels between the two port locations by specifically addressing potential shippers and marketing the attractiveness of the inland vessel with its economic and ecological advantages even more strongly. Additionally, further partners will be involved to promote inland navigation, and an exchange of existing and the development of new technical and operational concepts for inland vessels will take place.

Even More Cargo on the Inland Vessel

Frank Schnabel is pleased about the cooperation to promote inland navigation: “We have been working closely with the players in the Port of Hamburg for many years and are excited to intensify our collaboration with our new partners HHLA and Spedition Kruse. In particular, our universal and powerful Elbe port, where we handle many inland vessels in addition to sea vessels, offers the opportunity to load even more cargo onto the more environmentally friendly inland vessel and relieve the roads. The collaboration between Spedition Kruse as a regional forwarder and us as a port offers significant potential added value. The Elbe port provides corresponding storage capacities for (tank) containers of the industry, but also all other bulk, piece, and heavy goods can be loaded onto the inland vessel via the Elbe port to be subsequently transported to Hamburg.” Today, for example, Brunsbüttel Ports transports bulk goods daily with inland vessels from the Brunsbüttel Elbe port to the Hamburg port for the copper works Aurubis. This practical example underscores the attractiveness of inland navigation on the Lower Elbe.

The Port of Hamburg is not only Germany’s largest seaport but also the second-largest German inland port. About 10,000 inland vessels call at the handling facilities of the Elbe metropolis every year. Since 2012, the annual container volume that reaches or leaves the Port of Hamburg by inland vessel has increased by 50 percent to over approximately 140,000 standard containers.

Hamburg Metropolitan Region

Jens Hansen: “The Hamburg metropolitan region is the economic center of Northern Germany, and the Elbe is its lifeblood. Through the close cooperation of HHLA, Brunsbüttel Ports, and the Kruse Unternehmensgruppe, we contribute to regional economic development while also meeting the demands for sustainable transport concepts. We want to utilize the excellent port infrastructure of the Lower Elbe even more to shift regional traffic to the waterway and thus offer our customers fast, reliable, and environmentally friendly transport services.”

Spedition Kruse, which connects the industrial companies located in the ChemCoast Park Brunsbüttel with the Port of Hamburg, also sees significant added value in the cooperation. Friedrich A. Kruse jun. emphasizes: “As the main destination of our container traffic, the Port of Hamburg, including its depots, represents a target that we serve 24 hours a day, five days a week. More than 25,000 container movements are handled by us annually and processed through our container depot in Brunsbüttel. This includes containers that serve the raw material supply of the local industry or export containers that are stored at Kruse’s own warehouses. Due to this high volume, we are continuously striving to optimize our processes and are looking for new and efficient modes of transport. In this regard, the ecological aspect is increasingly coming to the forefront. For this reason, we look forward to an even closer cooperation with HHLA and Brunsbüttel Ports.”

Consolidated Competence

“All cooperation partners bring different competencies and experiences into the strategic partnership, from which the shippers and the shared economic region of the Lower Elbe can benefit. We are already looking forward to the collaboration,” concludes Frank Schnabel.

Photo: © Brunsbüttel Ports / Image caption: l.t.r. Jens Hansen, Friedrich A. Kruse jun., Thomas Lütje, Frank Schnabel, and Martin Schmedtje

www.hhla.de    www.brunsbuettel-ports.de    www.spedition-kruse.de