Making up for last year
Q2 / 2021 was seriously spoilt by measures to counter the outbreak of Covid-19. H1 as a whole was better, however. The upsurge is expected to continue to the end of the year for Duisport.
The race to make up for a rather difficult 2020 is on. Container volumes handled in Duisport, the German inland port of Duisburg, in the first half of 2021 were around 10% higher in comparison with the same period of last year, coming to around 2.2 million teu (2 million teu in 2020). The tonnage in the intermodal segment grew by even more, namely by approximately 11%. The volume of goods handled on ships also improved by 5%, whilst the railway sector really stood out, with growth of about 14% year-on-year. The overall volume of goods handled in the inland gateway in H1 / 2021 came to a total of 29.5 million t, slightly higher than the previous year’s figure of 29.2 million t. Strong growth in the intermodal sector enabled the hub to overcompensate for losses in the fossil fuels segment.
Goods traffic to and from China as well as European links with Poland and Southern Europe were particularly strong engines of growth. The addition of new destinations, for example to and from Spain, contributed, as did the augmentation of existing relations.
Before his last day of work at the end of July Duisport CEO Erich Staake said he expected the hub to register growth in maritime and continental traffic in H2 / 2021. He’s also pleased the gateway is expanding its infrastructure. “We’re happy that we can commence operations in our new ‘Logport VI’ container terminal at the end of this year; this will further increase our on-site handling capacities.” Staake is also pleased with structural change in the port. “Containers, swap bodies and trailers already account for more than 60% of the port of Duisburg’s total throughput.”
From 1998 onwards, Staake was the crucial driver of Duisport’s strong development and structural change, including the expansion of pan-European connections to and from Asia. On 31 July Staake passed the CEO’s baton on to his successor, Martin Bangen.
