HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - The Port of Hamburg once again lost ground in goods handling last year, achieving its worst result for almost 15 years. A total of 114.3 million tons of seaborne goods crossed the quayside, said Axel Mattern, head of Port of Hamburg Marketing, on Tuesday. That is 4.7 percent less than in 2022 and the worst figure since 2009 - the year after the global economic crisis. At that time, 110.4 million tons of seaborne cargo were handled. In 2014, the best year to date, the figure was 145.6 million tons.

The situation is also dramatic in the important container handling sector. The Port of Hamburg lost one million standard containers (TEU) within two years. According to the figures, 7.7 million TEU crossed the quayside last year, compared to 8.3 million TEU in the previous year and 8.7 million TEU in 2021. This is also the worst figure since 2009, when 7.0 million TEU were handled. The Port of Hamburg experienced its best year to date in 2007 with container throughput of 9.9 million TEU.

In order to stabilize the port and container handling in particular, Hamburg's red-green Senate wants to get the shipping company MSC on board with the largest handling company - the port logistics company HHLA. In future, the city and the Italian Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), based in Geneva, are to run Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) as a joint venture in which the city holds a majority of 50.1 percent. To date, the city has owned around 70 percent of HHLA, which is listed on the stock exchange.

In return, the world's largest shipping company MSC wants to build its German headquarters in Hamburg, increase its cargo volume from 2025 and increase it to an additional one million TEU per year by 2031. MSC and the city also want to increase HHLA's equity in Hamburg by 450 million euros. However, there is fierce opposition to the deal from the trade union Verdi and HHLA employees, who fear for co-determination and their jobs. The Hamburg Parliament is expected to have the final say in May. Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) intends to make a government statement in parliament on Wednesday.

Mattern said with regard to the port: "The decline is primarily due to the difficult geopolitical and economic situation that all market participants are facing." However, he also emphasized: "With the development of our handling figures, we are on a par with the Northern European competitive environment and can hold our own compared to other ports."

Container throughput in Rotterdam, by far the largest European port, fell by 7.0 percent to 13.4 million TEU, according to the figures. Antwerp, on the other hand, lost as much as 7.2 percent to around 11.6 million TEU. Hamburg therefore remains in third place among the so-called North Range ports - which include the ports on the North Sea coast of continental Europe that are relevant for container handling. Mattern refrained from making a specific forecast for 2024, but said: "We will be pleased if we can maintain what we have."

By far the most containers went to or came from China last year. According to the figures, the total was 2.17 million TEU - after 2.46 million TEU in 2022. This was followed by a wide margin by the USA with 650,000 containers (2022: 600,000) and Singapore with 390,000 TEU (2022: 420,000). Among the top 10 countries, the Port of Hamburg recorded growth in container throughput from Finland, the UK and India. There were declines in container throughput from Poland, Sweden, Canada and Denmark.

According to the figures, bulk cargo throughput remained almost unchanged last year at 36.2 million tons (2022: 36.3 million tons), while conventional general cargo throughput fell from 1.4 to 1.2 million tons. The main reason for this was the weak demand in the steel and iron sector as well as sanctions, for example for copper.

A total of 85.3 million tons of goods were transported from the hinterland to the port and vice versa last year, said the Chief Commercial Officer of the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Friedrich Stuhrmann. 29 million tons of goods were loaded from one ship onto another. Of the total of 114.3 million tons, 53.5 percent were transported by rail. In the container sector, this figure is 49.7 percent. 47.9 percent of the total of 7.7 million TEU were transported by truck and 2.4 percent by barge.

The CDU opposition in the Hamburg parliament blamed the red-green coalition in the Hanseatic city and the traffic light coalition in Berlin for the decline in the port. "Both have failed for years to make the necessary decisions and, above all, to ensure better framework and competitive conditions," said CDU parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering.

Whether the planned entry of MSC into HHLA will lead to a reversal of the trend remains more than doubtful, "because it can be assumed that the losses caused by shipping companies moving away will exceed the low cargo growth promised by MSC". Left-wing port expert Norbert Hackbusch called on the Senate to rethink. "The Port of Hamburg has a structural problem" that cannot be solved by an unfortunate marriage with a shipping company./klm/DP/jha