Port of Hamburg

Port of Hamburg Hafen Hamburg
Landungsbrücken (“Jetties”), in St. Pauli quarter
Location
Country	Germany
Location	Hamburg
Details
Opened	7 May 1189 by Frederick I
Operated by	Hamburg Port Authority Hamburg Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA)
Owned by	Hamburg Port Authority
Type of harbor	Artificial
Land area	43.31 km2 (16.72 sq mi)
Size	73.99 km2 (28.57 sq mi)
Employees	10,000 (2004)
Statistics
Vessel arrivals	9,681 (2013)
Annual cargo tonnage	145.7 million tonnes (2014)
Annual container volume	9.73 million TEU (2014)
Annual revenue	€44.4 million (2004)
Main trades	basic pharmaceutical materials, coffee, spice, carpets, paper
Website www.hafen-hamburg.de

Satellite image of Hamburg. The Port of Hamburg stretches along the Southern shore of the River Elbe and branches into numerous natural river arms.

Container Terminal Altenwerder

The Port of Hamburg (German mostly: Hamburger Hafen, in official usage also Hafen Hamburg) is a German sea port, located on the river Elbe in Hamburg, some 110 kilometres from the mouth of the Elbe into the North Sea.

It is Germany's largest port and is named the country's "Gateway to the World". In terms of TEU throughput, Port of Hamburg is the second-busiest port in Europe (after the port of Rotterdam) and 15th-largest worldwide. In 2014, 9.73 million TEUs (20-foot standard container equivalents) were handled in Hamburg.

The harbour covers an area of 73.99 km² (64.80 km² usable), of which 43.31 km² (34.12 km²) are land areas. The location is naturally advantaged by a branching Elbe, creating an ideal place for a port complex with warehousing and transshipment facilities. The extensive free port enabled toll-free storing, but this was abandoned in 2013.

History

The port is almost as old as the history of Hamburg itself. Founded on 7 May 1189 by Frederick I for its strategic location, it has been Central Europe's main port for centuries and enabled Hamburg to develop early into a leading city of trade with a rich and proud bourgeoisie.

During the age of the Hanseatic League from the 13th to 16th century, Hamburg was considered second only to the port and city of Lübeck in terms of its position as a central trading node for sea-borne trade. With discovery of the Americas and the emerging transatlantic trade, Hamburg exceeded all other German ports. During the second half of the 19th century, Hamburg became Central Europe's main hub for transatlantic passenger and freight travel, and from 1871 onward it was Germany's principal port of trade. In her time the Hamburg America Line was the largest shipping company in the world. Since 1888, the HADAG runs a scheduled ferry service across various parts of the port and the Elbe. The Free Port, established on 15 October 1888, enabled traders to ship and store goods without going through customs and further enhanced Hamburg's position in sea trade with neighbouring countries. The Moldauhafen has a similar arrangement, though related to the Czech Republic exclusively.

The Speicherstadt, one of Hamburg's architectural icons today, is a large wharf area of 350,000 m² floor area on the northern shore of the river, built in the 1880s as part of the free port and to cope with the growing quantity of goods stored in the port.

Hamburg shipyards lost fleets twice after WWI and WWII, and during the partition of Germany between 1945 and 1990, the Port of Hamburg lost much of its hinterland and consequently many of its trading connections. However, since German reunification, the fall of the Iron Curtain and European enlargement, Hamburg has made substantial ground as one of Europe's prime logistics centres and as one of the world's largest and busiest sea ports.

Access

Deepening of the river Elbe for large vessels is controversial for ecological reasons. In part due to cooperation with Lower Saxony and Bremen to build a new container port (JadeWeserPort) in the deep waters of Jadebusen in Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg withdrew from this plan after a change of government in 2001.

Terminals

Port	Operator	Type	Berths	Quay length	Quay cranes	Area (Ha)	Capacity (kTEU)
EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg (CTH)	Eurogate	Containers	6	2,050 m	21	140	2,900
Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA)	HHLA	Containers	4	1,400 m	26	110	> 3,000
Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB)	HHLA	Containers	8	2,850 m	22	140	5,200
Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT)	HHLA	Containers	4	1,240 m	12	40	950
Buss Hansa Terminal		Multi-Purpose		840 m	9	30
Buss Ross Terminal		Multi-Purpose		230 m	1
Rhenus Midgard Hamburg	Rhenus Midgard Hamburg GmbH	Multi-Purpose	3	500 m	2
G.T.H. Getreide Terminal Hamburg	Getreide AG	bulk cargo	1	270 m
Kalikai	K+S Transport GmbH	bulk cargo
Louis Hagel	Louis Hagel GmbH & Co. KG	bulk cargo	2	300 m	1
Steinweg		bulk cargo		1,150 m	4		250
Buss Hansa Terminal		liquid cargo		840 m
Elbe Mineralölwerke	Royal Dutch Shell	liquid cargo					8/ship
Vopak Terminal Hamburg	Vopak	liquid cargo		840 m	9	720,000 cbm	5,000
Hamburg Cruise Center Altona		Passenger	1
Hamburg Cruise Center HafenCity		Passenger	2
Hamburg Cruise Center Steinwerder		Passenger	1

Cruise

Hamburg is a major cruise destination and one of Europe's largest ports of call for cruise passengers traveling the Atlantic, or the Norwegian and Baltic Seas. The port is also a major location for shipbuilder and shipyards, designing, building and reconditioning yachts and cruise liners. Hamburg has two passenger terminals for cruise ships: Hamburg Cruise Center HafenCity and Hamburg Cruise Center Altona, both capable of processing the world's largest cruise ships.

Panoramic view of Hamburg Harbour as seen from atop of Dockland Hamburg

Culture

Flussschifferkirche (Boatman's Church)

The Port of Hamburg is also one of Hamburg's largest attractions, both as a living, industrial and logistic center but also as a backdrop for modern culture and the port's history. Among these are various museum ships, musical theaters, bars, restaurants and hotels - and even a floating boat church.

The annual celebration of the harbour's birthday (Hafengeburtstag) during the first weekend of May is one of Hamburg's biggest public events. National and international visitors come to experience the festivities. Tugboats perform "ballets", old galleons and new cruise ships are open for tours, and fireworks explode at night.

Tour guides on boat tours in the harbour are called he lüchts (Low German for he is lying) after an often used call of dock workers when they overheard the stories told to tourists.

See also

• BallinStadt
• Elbe 17

External links

• Port of Hamburg Website
• Hamburg Chamber of Commerce Port of Hamburg: Facts, figures, and outlook
• HafenCity Website
• The Elbe Philharmonic Hall Currently under construction in the HafenCity
• Arts in the HafenCity
• Ship Movements, Photos & Videos from Hamburg