HHLA’s container terminals in Hamburg handled over 1.6 million TEU in 2014

In 2014, more containers than ever before were handled by rail at HHLA’s container terminals in Hamburg. With over 1.6 million standard containers (TEU) processed, the terminals at Altenwerder, Burchardkai and Tollerort significantly exceeded the previous year’s high figure once again. This means that HHLA’s terminals in Hamburg alone are likely to have handled more rail containers than any other port in Northern Europe, the company said in its press release.
 
“Port terminals are only as good as their hinterland connections. The record level of throughput by rail therefore underlines what our facilities are capable of,” says Klaus-Dieter Peters, Chairman of the Executive Board of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA). “The Port of Hamburg is Europe’s biggest railway port. We will work on our terminals and with our intermodal companies to ensure that we can continue to fully utilise this advantage. However, the Port of Hamburg’s strength in terms of rail connections is not self-perpetuating. Given the huge amounts being invested in the rail infrastructure of our competitor ports at present, it is essential to continue strengthening the Port of Hamburg’s rail connections.”
 
Once again last year, the Container Terminal Altenwerder was Germany’s largest container railway terminal. With 785,000 TEU, it almost reached the previous year’s record numbers (2013: 813,000 TEU). The Container Terminal Burchardkai recorded substantial growth, handling a total of 629,000 TEU. This represents an increase of more than 20 percent on the previous year (2013: 524,000 TEU). Throughput at the Container Terminal Tollerort rose by 19 percent, surpassing the 200,000 TEU mark for the first time with a total of 201,000 TEU (2013: 168,000 TEU). By way of comparison: in 2013, total rail throughput at the Ports of Bremen was 1.049 million TEU, in Rotterdam 790,000 TEU and in Antwerp 396,000 TEU.
 
As well as recording growth in rail throughput at its container terminals, HHLA registered a marked increase in the hinterland transportation volume of its intermodal companies. In 2014, they transported 1.3 million TEU, 9.4 percent more than in the previous year. In January 2015, HHLA’s rail subsidiary Metrans opened its ninth inland terminal in Usti nad Labem in the Czech Republic.