Pre-Corona impact hits Hamburg
In the port of Hamburg, seaborne cargo throughput in the first quarter of the year amounted to 31.9 million t, 7.9% down on 2019. At 2.2 million teu, container handling was less affected, but still recorded a 6.6% decline.
At 579,000 teu, the total number of containers Hamburg handled in Q1/2020 for China, its most important trading partner, was 14.6% lower.
Yet, holding second place in the ranking of Hamburg’s container partners, USA accounted for 146,000 teu in Q1/2020 and still generated a 20.7% growth. In third place with 111,000 teu, Singapore also achieved an improvement in the first three months of the year.
By contrast, the transhipment sector, or container throughput between ocean-going and feeder vessels, was especially affected by the corona crisis with a decline of 10.8% to 772,000 teu. (mw)