With the arrival in Hamburg of the 10,062teu Cosco Africa on 20 May and the 9,469teu Cosco Guangzhou on 23 May, the two original round trips have been restored.
Under the AE-N service, the Cosco Guangzhou regularly sails from Dalian via Xingang (Tianjin), Qingdao, Ningbo, Nansha (Guangzhou), Singapore and Rotterdam to Hamburg.
Under the AE-S service, the Cosco Africa first puts in to Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Yantian (Shenzhen) and Port Kelang before docking at Hamburg, Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Le Havre. One service operates eight, the other nine vessels of the Chinese shipping company COSCO Container Lines with capacities between 8,400 and 10,00teu. Four ships will be sailing under the name of the CKYH partner company Hanjin Shipping. Loading and unloading of the container cargo in Hamburg will be carried out by HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT).
Container transport between Hamburg and Asia reached a total volume of 5.5m containers (TEU) in 2008. With 3.1m teu, the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong) retained its top position in 2008 as one of the Port of Hamburg’s ten most important trading partners for container transport.