SSG No 20 - Shipgaz

PORTS & MARITIME LOGISTICS
Rostock: passengers rule but could boxes now come?
of HHLA and the LHG are known, along
with their financial involvement.
Another record at Bremen
The port complex of Bremen/Bremerhaven
is “on track for another record year”, said
new Ports and Economics Senator Ralf
Nagel, after what was officially termed a
“sensational” 2006.
The Weser saw throughput rise 20 per
cent last year and 8 per cent in the first half
of 2007 to 34 million tons. Boxes were up
11 per cent to 2.3 million TEUs, putting 5
million TEUs within reach.
Nagel said current CT 4 expansion of
Bremerhaven’s Wilhelm Kaisen Container
Terminal was just in time to cope with
growth. The last of four new berths there
is due into service in the first half of next
year and reports now say the entire terminal
will be in full operation by next Autumn.
The expansion is the final stage of container
development. The port can expand no
further and will be looking to its new “big
brother”, the deepwater JWP in nearby Wilhelmshaven,
to cope with future increases as
Bremerhaven settles into a feeder hub role.
The Weser ports have meanwhile
unveiled a campaign to improve inner-port
development and hinterland links, joining
Hamburg in its concern over those issues.
Ralf Nagel said political priority must be
given to improving roads, railways and
waterways, which he said were not ready
for the cargo the future would bring.
Vehicle handling sharply ahead
Vehicle handling is another sector to show
double-digit growth on the Weser in the
first half of 2007, with nearly a million
vehicles handled, or 12 per cent more. That
lends credence to predictions it will pass
the two million mark this year and regain
the European lead currently held by Zeebrugge.
Already operational new facilities
in the Osthafen and other improvements
costing EUR 233 million will increase the
Weser’s chances.
Germany’s second biggest car hub,
Emden, also expects 2007 to be another
record year for vehicles. It hopes to pass
the one million mark this year and also the
6.15 million ton overall handling figure of
2006.
In Germany’s biggest easternmost seaport,
Rostock, port chief Ulrich Bauermeister
indicated there is profit to be made
from the hinterland problems Bremerhaven
and Hamburg are facing in the west.
He said that, because of port congestion,
some North-South container traffic might
Brake
expansion
is par for
German
course.
find its way back to Rostock. If it did, the
port was quite capable of handling it, he
said.
Containers have played little part in the
fast development of the former GDR port
since 1990, when lines moved to Hamburg
and Bremerhaven. Several unsuccessful
efforts have been made since then to reestablish
container shipping in Rostock.
Bauermeister warns against too great hopes
now, saying that Rostock was not about to
develop into a container port.
He did say however that in sectors in
which Rostock had done well since 1990,
business would continue to boom.
He predicted that by 2015 truck/trailer
traffic would nearly double, passenger
totals would rise 20 per cent and bulk cargo
would increase by about 30 per cent.
Rostock increases growth
Cargo handling rose eight per cent in Rostock
in the first half of 2007 to 13.1 million
tons after 26.8 million tons overall in 2006.
Bauermeister said Rostock had “successfully
overcome the difficult structural transformation
of the 1990s and is consistently
increasing its growth”.
Typical of the expansion in German
ports to cope with rising traffic demands
is Brake on the Lower Weser, where construction
has begun on a EUR 37.5 million
project. A new 270 m quayside, costing
EUR 14.5 million, is being built to 2009
with road and rail facilities behind two
berths. The facility can be expanded later
by 180 m to 450 m. Brake handled 2.3 million
tons in the first half of this year after
5.5 million tons in the whole of 2006. Officials
said its existing facilities have reached
saturation point.
tom todd
54 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • OCTOBER 26, 2007