zoomImage Courtesy: HHM/Peter Glaubitt

Total seaborne cargo throughput at Germany’s Port of Hamburg reached 138.2 million tons in 2016, representing a growth of 0.3 percent, or 347,000 tons, compared to the previous year.

The increase was attributable to general cargo throughput, which in 2016 represented a 67.5 percent share of the total, after 67 percent in the previous year.

In the year under review, throughput of general cargo, both containerized and conventional – at Hamburg terminals totalled 93.3 million tons, an advance of one percent or 922,000 tons on the previous year, driven by the container throughput.

As in the two previous years, in 2016 the Port of Hamburg’s index figure for containerization, or containerized general cargo’s proportion of the general cargo total, was around 98.4 percent. At 91.7 million tons, in 2016 containerized cargo throughput was up by 1.1 million tons or 1.2 percent on the previous year.

In 2016 throughput of non-containerized general cargo totalled 1.5 million tons, a downturn of eleven percent.

The positive general cargo throughput trend sufficed to compensate for a fall in bulk cargo handling. After a strong performance in the previous year, this fell by 1.3 percent or 575,000 tons to 44.9 million tons in 2016.

With a throughput of 22 million tons slightly down on the previous year, the grab cargo category dominated this segment.