Hamburg is one of Europe's largest handlers of vehicle cargo.Hamburg throughput - 1990-1999
THE GERMAN car manufacturing industry needs little introduction, and the Port of Hamburg acts as an important distribution hub for all the major German automotive makes.
Indeed, Hamburg is one of Europe's largest handlers of vehicle cargo. Port officials say that roughly 700,000 vehicles are handled by terminals throughout the year, and the total ro-ro turnover is roughly two million tonnes per year.
But the port also acts as a trans-shipment centre for Far East-manufactured products, with particular emphasis on rail-barge transportation to Eastern and central Europe, and feeder connections to the growing Scandinavian and UK markets.
The growing market for second-hand vehicles to the former Soviet Union and West Africa has also helped boost throughput at the terminals in the port. At HHLA's Unikai, the principal ro-ro activity at the multi-purpose facility, known as O'Swaldkai, has evolved around the demand for second-hand cars in Russia and West African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
The O'Swaldkai terminal has been developed by Unikai as a dedicated con-ro facility, where vehicle traffic handling dominates throughput figures, and load on-load off container traffic is seen as an important back-up business.
But no one cargo-handling terminal can work on one or two specialised marketplaces.
Thus, Unikai's own major commodity handling comes via the export of German car brands to Asia.
But every port has its specialised handling facility, and Hamburg's major vehicle handling business moves through the Harms Terminal, which is operated by the family concern, EH Harms. Harms has its own dedicated terminal south of the main container handling complexes of HHLA and Eurogate.
"Harms handles up to 500,000 vehicles per year over its terminal. In those terms, this is the biggest in Hamburg, and it has the inland distribution system in place, allowing transfer of vehicles by rail and road to and from Hamburg," says Bengt van Beuningen, marketing director for the Port of Hamburg.
The Car Feeder Service was set up by the Harms Group in 1985.