In recent years, the global shipping industry has been under tremendous pressure due to the ongoing impact of the economic crisis. As the second largest port in Europe and the largest port in Germany, although Hamburg has not yet returned to its former prosperity, it at least has a clear advantage in the competition with major ports in Northern Europe, and even achieved recovery growth last year.
In 2016, the cargo throughput of the Port of Hamburg was 138.2 million tons, a slight increase of 0.3% year-on-year. Among them, the business volume of the Port of Hamburg to China increased by 1.6%. Ingo Egloff, co-chief executive of the Hamburg Port Marketing Association, believes that the growth in goods trade with China is the main reason for the gradual recovery of business at the Port of Hamburg.
Ingo said: "Although the container throughput of the Port of Hamburg only increased slightly last year, compared with the recession in 2015, we think this is already a very good situation. We also hope to continue to maintain this Although it is not obvious, it is still a growth trend. This is related to the countries with which the Port of Hamburg trades, such as our most important trading partner China. China's economic growth can be said to directly affect the freight situation of the Port of Hamburg."
He said that due to the impact of China’s new economic normal, the shipping volume of the Port of Hamburg once fell into a low ebb. However, under the framework of the Chinese government’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Hamburg’s seaport hinterland transportation advantages are particularly obvious, and there is huge potential for cooperation with China. Inge said that the Port of Hamburg has offices in ports in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places, and attaches great importance to maintaining close contact with the employees of these offices.
Ingo said: "We are very concerned about the developments in China. For example, the Chinese government is vigorously promoting the construction of the Hungary-Serbia international railway line connecting Budapest and Belgrade, and Hamburg is also building a container hub port in Budapest. There is a lot of room for cooperation between the two parties. In this regard, At the same time, Hamburg has 12 trains heading to China every week, the so-called Overland Silk Road, and we also look forward to further cooperation with China in this regard."
In order to optimize services for Chinese customers, the Port of Hamburg launched a Chinese webpage on its official website at the end of last year. Matthias Schulz, head of the Port's Asia and Overseas Market Development Department, said: "On the one hand, we translated the web page into Chinese, and on the other hand, we also adjusted the content settings and placed database queries in a prominent position. .For example, Chinese companies can narrow the search scope by selecting qualifiers. The advantage of all information in this process being presented in Chinese is that customers from China can more easily search for the services they need and the corresponding local companies. and then cooperate.”
Liu Guosheng, chairman of the German-Chinese Exchange Association, told reporters that in 2016, China continued to maintain its position as the largest trading partner of the Port of Hamburg, and the business volume between Hamburg and Chinese ports reached nearly 2.6 million TEUs. At the same time, Hamburg also has the largest port freight railway station in Europe, and nearly half of the traffic in the port hinterland is realized by rail transportation. He said: “The Hamburg city government pays very serious attention to the development of China’s ‘Belt and Road’ project and feels that it is an intersection between the ‘Belt and Road’ Maritime Silk Road and the Land Silk Road.”
According to Theo Sommer, publisher of Germany's Die Zeit and an expert on international relations, the double-digit growth rate of China's economic development has slowed down to 6.7%, causing the growth of container shipping volume at the Port of Hamburg to almost stagnate, which is enough to prove that the relationship with China Trade exchanges are vital to Hamburg, so Hamburg will make every effort to strengthen cooperation with China: "I firmly believe that the 'Belt and Road' initiative will help further promote bilateral cooperation. But at the same time, I do not think that within this framework The rising railway transportation will gradually replace sea transportation. After all, sea transportation enjoys the advantages of low price and large transportation volume, so both will prosper together. I hope that the Port of Hamburg will once again welcome a large number of containers from China."
In 2016, the cargo throughput of the Port of Hamburg was 138.2 million tons, a slight increase of 0.3% year-on-year. Among them, the business volume of the Port of Hamburg to China increased by 1.6%. Ingo Egloff, co-chief executive of the Hamburg Port Marketing Association, believes that the growth in goods trade with China is the main reason for the gradual recovery of business at the Port of Hamburg.
Ingo said: "Although the container throughput of the Port of Hamburg only increased slightly last year, compared with the recession in 2015, we think this is already a very good situation. We also hope to continue to maintain this Although it is not obvious, it is still a growth trend. This is related to the countries with which the Port of Hamburg trades, such as our most important trading partner China. China's economic growth can be said to directly affect the freight situation of the Port of Hamburg."
He said that due to the impact of China’s new economic normal, the shipping volume of the Port of Hamburg once fell into a low ebb. However, under the framework of the Chinese government’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Hamburg’s seaport hinterland transportation advantages are particularly obvious, and there is huge potential for cooperation with China. Inge said that the Port of Hamburg has offices in ports in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places, and attaches great importance to maintaining close contact with the employees of these offices.
Ingo said: "We are very concerned about the developments in China. For example, the Chinese government is vigorously promoting the construction of the Hungary-Serbia international railway line connecting Budapest and Belgrade, and Hamburg is also building a container hub port in Budapest. There is a lot of room for cooperation between the two parties. In this regard, At the same time, Hamburg has 12 trains heading to China every week, the so-called Overland Silk Road, and we also look forward to further cooperation with China in this regard."
In order to optimize services for Chinese customers, the Port of Hamburg launched a Chinese webpage on its official website at the end of last year. Matthias Schulz, head of the Port's Asia and Overseas Market Development Department, said: "On the one hand, we translated the web page into Chinese, and on the other hand, we also adjusted the content settings and placed database queries in a prominent position. .For example, Chinese companies can narrow the search scope by selecting qualifiers. The advantage of all information in this process being presented in Chinese is that customers from China can more easily search for the services they need and the corresponding local companies. and then cooperate.”
Liu Guosheng, chairman of the German-Chinese Exchange Association, told reporters that in 2016, China continued to maintain its position as the largest trading partner of the Port of Hamburg, and the business volume between Hamburg and Chinese ports reached nearly 2.6 million TEUs. At the same time, Hamburg also has the largest port freight railway station in Europe, and nearly half of the traffic in the port hinterland is realized by rail transportation. He said: “The Hamburg city government pays very serious attention to the development of China’s ‘Belt and Road’ project and feels that it is an intersection between the ‘Belt and Road’ Maritime Silk Road and the Land Silk Road.”
According to Theo Sommer, publisher of Germany's Die Zeit and an expert on international relations, the double-digit growth rate of China's economic development has slowed down to 6.7%, causing the growth of container shipping volume at the Port of Hamburg to almost stagnate, which is enough to prove that the relationship with China Trade exchanges are vital to Hamburg, so Hamburg will make every effort to strengthen cooperation with China: "I firmly believe that the 'Belt and Road' initiative will help further promote bilateral cooperation. But at the same time, I do not think that within this framework The rising railway transportation will gradually replace sea transportation. After all, sea transportation enjoys the advantages of low price and large transportation volume, so both will prosper together. I hope that the Port of Hamburg will once again welcome a large number of containers from China."