Germany’s Port of Hamburg has recorded a 2.9% rise in seaborne cargo throughput, reaching 95.8 million tonnes in the initial nine months of 2021.

However, the port cautioned that international transport chains would continue to be unstable for the rest of the year, with global container ports experiencing disruptions amid the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.

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The port’s bulk cargo amount was 29.7 million tonnes, an increase of 6.1% compared to the same period last year.

During the first three quarters of 2021, general cargo throughput grew 1.6% to 66.1 million tonnes.

Port of Hamburg maintained this ‘upward trend’ on container handling as well.

Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM) joint CEOs Axel Mattern and Ingo Egloff said: “At 709,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), the Port of Hamburg posted the highest quarterly total in its history for containers transported.”

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The throughput of containerised general cargo rose 1.5% to 65.2 million tonnes during the first three quarters of this year.

Conventional general cargo throughput was 908,000 tonnes, marking a 5.2% growth.

In the container throughput segment, exports rose 2.9% to 3.2 million TEU while imports increased 1.9% to 3.3 million TEU.

Excluding Australia/Pacific (-0.1%), the other container trade lanes of the port, which include the Americas (+6.7%), Asia (+1.4%), Africa (+4.5%) and Europe (+1.6%), logged positive throughput performance.

The Port of Hamburg expects the ongoing upward trend in seaborne cargo throughput in Q4 2021 as well.

The port aims to achieve a combined throughput of nearly 130 million tonnes and 8.7 million TEU for 2021.

Earlier this month, the Port Authority of Valencia, along with the Valenciaport Foundation, joined forces with the Hamburg Port Authority to develop hydrogen projects for the maritime sector.

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