A new energy gateway
Positive results, even through crises. In these times of the ongoing European energy crisis, Lower Saxony’s ports are more relevant than ever before. Fossil fuels such as coal as well as alternatives that go easier on the environment reach Germany via the nation’s northern ports.
At the end of March this year Niedersachsen Ports (NPorts), presented its latest throughput figures. It reported a 6% improvement compared to 2021 for the nine state-owned seaports located in Brake, Cuxhaven, Emden, Leer, Nordenham, Oldenburg, Papenburg, Stade and Wilhelmshaven.
This is not self-evident, as the port of Hamburg illustrated recently. It reported a 6.8% drop in cargo throughput in 2022, compared to the previous year. Bremen’s ports even forecast a 7.4% shortfall for 2022.
Investment in existing infrastructure has been designed to contribute to the NPorts’ role in Germany’s short and long-term energy supply and make its hubs “gateways for clean energy for the whole of Germany,” as Lower Saxony’s economics minister Olaf Lies said. NPorts has invested around EUR 117 million in the ports of late, especially in LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Stade.
Another EUR 175 million is set to be invested in the hubs in 2023, for example to finance the expansion of the terminals for the offshore wind power industry and for ‘green hydrogen’, an option for the future. Realising Germany’s first LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Stade, above all, is considered a great opportunity.
The ports proved to be strong thanks to their investors and to existing handling equipment. Together with Uniper, NPorts is currently planning to construct a new jetty for liquefied gas, in order to become a market leader in this field.
The energy crisis is an opportunity
Lower Saxony is proving to be one of the winners in the current global political environment. Coal’s comeback as an important source of energy led to an increase in the handling of solid bulk goods from 12 million t in 2021 to just under 15 million t last year – an improvement of approximately 24%.
A closer look soon reveals that Wilhelmshaven, traditionally the most important coal port in Lower Saxony, almost doubled its imports from 1.58 to 3.15 million t. The Weser estuary port of Nordenham increased its throughput by 55% to 1.69 million t. The Lower Weser port of Brake, an import hub for grain and animal feed, some from Ukraine, is also included in the group.
These dry bulk cargo volumes recorded an increase of around 35% to 3.45 million t. Strong results overall, marred only by declines in Cuxhaven (–9%) and Stade (–4%). Lower Saxony’s ports also benefited from the comeback of fossil fuels in the liquid bulk segment. The import of crude oil and mineral oil products increased significantly in Emden and Nordenham, amongst other gateways, and especially so in Wilhelmshaven.
Minister Lies is concerned about the sluggish progress of northern German port cooperation, which experts believe could make the expensive deepening of the waterway, which is once again due, superfluous. The port operators HHLA and Eurogate broke off their cooperation talks last autumn, after more than a year without any results.
Wilhelmshaven’s JadeWeserPort lost volumes too. The deepwater port, which has just turned ten years old, handled about 683,000 teu in 2022, 4.1% less than in the previous year. This comes as no surprise, as unplanned ship calls arising from pandemic-related diversions had pushed 2021’s result up significantly.