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Economic slowdown in China and Russia threatens Hamburg throughput

Container throughput at Germany’s Port of Hamburg is expected to fall by 7% due to sluggish economic growth in its major trade partners China and Russia.

The Port of Hamburg Marketing Association has cut its forecast for container volumes at the port by 7% to 9m teu this year. A previous forecast projected that volumes would grow 3% to 10m teu in 2015, Reuters reports.

Containers imported from China via Hamburg numbered 3m teu in 2014, with another 660,000 teu inbound from Russia.

In contrast, container shipments to and from China decreased by 11% during the first half of 2015, due to China’s shrinking factory output, slower economic growth and slumping stock markets.

Container trade with Russia fell by over 33%, having been affected by Western sanctions on Russia and Russia’s ban on food imports.

Hamburg’s container volumes as a whole fell 7% to 4.5m teu during the first six months of 2015, compared with the first half of last year.

 

Holly Birkett

Holly is Splash's Online Editor and correspondent for the UK and Mediterranean. She has been a maritime journalist since 2010, and has written for and edited several trade publications. She is currently studying for membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. In 2013, Holly won the Seahorse Club's Social Media Journalist of the Year award. She is currently based in London.

Comments

  1. With the giant Chinese and Russian economies slowing, I would have thought almost every major port would see a decline in fortunes, so Hamburg won’t be alone.

  2. Correct — 7% however is quite big — come the end of the year we’ll look at the biggest losers

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