Container traffic totaled 1.9 million TEUs in the first four months of the year, a 23.5 percent increase on the year-earlier period that is significantly higher than growth at Rotterdam, Antwerp and neighboring Hamburg.
Bremen/Bremerhaven box traffic jumped 24.9 percent in the first quarter to 1.4 million TEUs, closing the gap on Hamburg, Germany’s biggest port, which grew 18.2 percent to 2.1 million TEUs.
Bremerhaven, the larger of the two ports, boosted automotive shipments by 35.4 percent in April to 176,000 units.
This took traffic for the first four months of 2011 to 662,000 units, a 46.5 percent gain on the year-earlier period that consolidated its status as Europe’s biggest auto logistics hub.