Hamburg Market Share Shift

The arrival of more 20,000 teu-plus megaships has seen a change of market share from Germany’s hub gateway container port of Hamburg to neighbours Rotterdam and Antwerp.

A recent report is projecting a 5.1% downturn in container imports for Hamburg in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period of 2018.

Hamburg have currently not published its final figures for 2018, however, at the nine-month point the total volume handled was 2.4% down on the previous year, at 6.6m teu.

During the same period, Rotterdam and Antwerp saw their numbers rise 5.7% and 6.8%, respectively.

It has been suggested that the long-awaited deepening of the River Elbe may have allowed the two western ports to gain a valuable hold on Hamburg’s market share.