Germany's Duisburg port, the world’s busiest inland port, boosted container traffic 25 percent in 2010 from the year before, outpacing growth at Europe’s top box hubs.
The port, on the Rhein river midway between Cologne and Rotterdam, handled a record 2.25 million 20-foot equivalents transported by trucks, freight trains and inland waterway vessels.
Overall cargo traffic soared to almost 28 million metric tons from 22.8 million metric tons in 2009 and was just short of the record 28.3 million metric ton handled in 2008 before the economic recession slashed iron ore, coal and steel shipments.
“The excellent results in container handling show that we are on the right road at the Duisburg location,” said Erich Staake, Chief Executive Officer of port operator Duisburger Hafen AG. “This strengthens us in our intention to develop our capacity in order to direct growing flows of goods through Duisburg.”
The port, on the Rhein river midway between Cologne and Rotterdam, handled a record 2.25 million 20-foot equivalents transported by trucks, freight trains and inland waterway vessels.
Overall cargo traffic soared to almost 28 million metric tons from 22.8 million metric tons in 2009 and was just short of the record 28.3 million metric ton handled in 2008 before the economic recession slashed iron ore, coal and steel shipments.
“The excellent results in container handling show that we are on the right road at the Duisburg location,” said Erich Staake, Chief Executive Officer of port operator Duisburger Hafen AG. “This strengthens us in our intention to develop our capacity in order to direct growing flows of goods through Duisburg.”
Duisburg, at the center of Germany’s Ruhr industrial belt, is growing its container traffic faster than Europe’s top three box hubs, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg.
Rotterdam and Antwerp boosted box traffic about 17 percent in the first nine months of 2010 and the full year increase is likely to be lower as shipments taper off in the seasonally slack fourth quarter.