Port of Hamburg: The pressure on HHLA and Eurogate to merge is growing

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Under pressure

: The Port of Hamburg has largely decoupled itself from global growth in goods handling and has fallen far behind Rotterdam

Photo: FABIAN BIMMER/ REUTERS

The growth forecasts presented in Hamburg in 2012 were gigantic: 17 million standard containers (TEU) and 219 million tons of total handling were predicted in the port development plan.

The self-proclaimed "gateway to the world" should benefit massively from the pulsating globalization.

But there is no longer any trace of this euphoria on the Elbe.

Container throughput is still bobbing below the 10 million TEU mark.

The European rival ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which were once at eye level, have clearly set themselves apart from Hamburg.

Port of Hamburg: Left behind instead of in front.

During the pandemic, cargo handling in the port of Hamburg collapsed by almost 16 percent per quarter, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy recently calculated in a study.

"The decline was the most drastic since the global financial and economic crisis of 2008/09," says the analysis.

The main reason for the slump is the weakening business with China due to long traffic jams and delays on the oceans.

Container handling in Hamburg is growing only slowly

But the Port of Hamburg fell behind well before the pandemic.

While imports and exports in the European Union in 2021 were around 30 percent above the level of 2005, the total handling at the Hamburg quayside is still only slightly above that of 2005. So why can't you benefit from the expansion on the Elbe? benefit from world trade?

"The temporary decline in handling as a result of the Corona crisis appears to be a secondary problem for the Port of Hamburg," says the Kiel study.

The growth in shipping is mainly due to an increase in container handling.

Here, too, the study offers a comparison of Hamburg's deficit: While container handling in Hamburg has increased by around 17 percent since 2010, it has grown by a whopping 40 percent in Antwerp, for example.

Decisive for this development are the decisions of the shipping companies to set certain routes.

Structural problems - many truck jams, weak automation

The fact that the Hanseatic city often gets nothing here is due to many structural problems.

High personnel costs, suboptimal automation and many truck traffic jams in the port of Hamburg are just a few of the construction sites.

A new port development plan announced for this year aims to address the issues.

But is that enough to make the port more competitive again?

And is that enough to secure the around 123,000 jobs in the Hamburg metropolitan region that, according to the Institute for Shipping Economics and Logistics, are directly or indirectly related to the port in the long term?

HHLA and Eurogate have been playing poker for years

Many experts have long been calling for the two ports on the North Sea coast to grow together.

Because even these are far from optimal.

Since opening in 2012, the Jade-Weser-Port in Wilhelmshaven has not yet managed to handle more than a million TEU per year - the potential of the deep-sea port is significantly higher, especially since the large container ships here save the longer journey through the Elbe to Hamburg be able.

The entry of the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company in the operating company of the container terminal in Wilhelmshaven last year is seen as an important step in the right direction.

But the negotiations between the port operators HHLA in Hamburg and Eurogate in Bremen are decisive.

The talks have been going on since spring 2020. However, they have repeatedly faltered, apparently mostly because of personal issues between HHLA CEO

(55) and Eurogate co-owner

(71), who operates the terminals in Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven with Eurogate.

What will happen to the traditional HHLA if the terminals are subordinated to those in Bremen, which would probably make the most sense from an antitrust perspective?

Is Eckelmann ready to give up power?

Will a merged port only have one seat or is a double seat conceivable?

And how are unions reacting, already fearing wage cuts and downsizing?

But the bottom line is: A North German super port could be seen, it would be on an equal footing with its competitors Rotterdam and Antwerp.

This step, whose positive effects on competitiveness have already been confirmed by several reports, is viewed by observers as long overdue.

Hanseatic standstill while competition from "maritime Silk Road" grows

Because while Hamburg and Bremen remain in a Hanseatic standstill, the competition never sleeps.

Baltic Sea ports like the one in Gdansk are becoming increasingly important.

There is also a lot going on in the Mediterranean, especially in the China business that is so important for Hamburg.

The Chinese state is investing in an infrastructure network there: "In the meantime, several port terminals are owned by Chinese companies at the end points of the 'maritime Silk Road', for example in Valencia, Marseille and Genoa," says the study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

These fast-growing Mediterranean ports could quickly become a further threat to northern German ports - provided they continue to act as cautiously as before and do not quickly improve their competitiveness.