Port of Hamburg’s throughput dipped 3% on the year in Q1 2024

The German port’s total throughput declined by around 3% on the year to 27.40 million mt in the first three months of 2024.

PHOTO: High angle view of Hamburg port's cargo container terminal. Getty Images

The primary cause behind this is a reduced turnover in bulk goods, which dropped by 11.9% from the previous year to 8.2 million mt in the first quarter of 2024. Particularly notable is the significant drop in liquid cargo, which declined by nearly 28%. The port authority has attributed this drop to "currently high inventory levels."

On the other hand, Hamburg’s container throughput improved nearly 1% on the year to 1.9 million TEUs.

In the first quarter of 2024, there was a general increase in the number of ship visits with container slot capacities. Notably, vessels with medium capacities ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 TEU showed a significant growth during the period.

There was a decrease in the number of visits by container ships with capacities exceeding 10,000 TEU. One contributing factor was the rerouting of ships around the Cape of Good Hope, leading to extended voyage durations and consequently fewer large container ships calling at the Port of Hamburg along these routes at the start of the year.

“The quarterly results cover a short period of time and are not indicative of throughput trends for the remainder of the year,” Port of Hamburg's marketing chief executive Axel Mattern added.

By Tuhin Roy

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