Following a slight downturn in 2010, volumes in container handling between the Port of Hamburg and Poland recovered notably in 2011.
Feedership container traffic with Poland grew by 33.3 percent, to 238,000 TEU (20-feet standard containers), and with Eastern Europe as a whole by 38.7 percent to 1,07 million TEU. So it comes as no surprise that feeder connections between Hamburg and the Polish ports were further expanded during 2011. Altogether five new feeder services began operation between Hamburg and Baltic ports in 2011.
The Polish ports of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Świnoujście and Szczecin are served from Hamburg by eleven feeder services with a total of 20 sailings per week. In addition, Hamburg fulfills an essential hub function for traffic with its East Europe hinterland. For instance, provisional estimates by Port of Hamburg Marketing indicated that between Hamburg and Poland a comparable transport volume to 2010 of approximately 240,000 TEU was reached on truck and rail container traffic. A precise calculation of the 2011 figures is not yet available.
For the Port of Hamburg and its marketing organization, Port of Hamburg Marketing, this very positive throughput trend is reason enough to participate in the Intermodal Conference, being held as part of Transport Week in Gdańsk from 6 – 8 March. Claudia Roller, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, will be attending this conference and delivering a presentation on the topic, “The European Market Seen From the North Sea Hub Port Hamburg.”