World fire impacts Hamburg
At the presentation of its 2022 results, Germany's biggest port said that "in 2022, international crises impacted the Port of Hamburg’s seaborne cargo throughput."
In total, Hamburg's terminals handled 6.8% less than in 2021, with volumes amounting to 119.9 million t. Yet, conventional general cargo showed a positive trend, with a growth of 11.2% to 1.4 million t. General cargo throughput however was 5.8% down at 83.7 million t. Bulk cargo volumes in the port dropped by 8.9% to 36.2 million t.
Axel Mattern, Port of Hamburg Marketing’s CEO, added that the following problems impacted business in the port: the war in Ukraine with the related sanctions against Russia, worldwide supply chain problems caused by the corona pandemic, labour disputes in the port and very high inflation in the course of the autumn.
Container throughput was at 8.3 million teu, a downturn of 5.1%. In 2022, China again headed the list of the Top Ten partner countries with 2.46 million teu - down by 3.8%.
USA followed in second place with 605,000 teu, representing a drop of 2.1%. Both Sri Lanka and Malaysia rose in the rankings, with Malaysia showing an increase of 10.7% to 177,000 teu, and Sri Lanka growing by 8.8% to 128,000 teu. (sh)