International Cargo Seaport: Port of Hamburg

Hamburg is a city in the northern part of Germany. The city does not have any coastline, but it is passed by a wide river which allows the city to have a large port for container shipment. The wide river in question is the River Elbe, where the Port of Hamburg is located.

About Port of Hamburg

The Port of Hamburg is placed in the center of Hamburg on the River Elbe. The distance from the port to the river’s mouth in the North Sea is more than 100 kilometers. The River Elbe is known to connect Germany to the world in terms of shipment and naval course.

Since the particular part of the River Elbe has a lot of branches, it is an ideal place for various facilities of a port complex. The location allows the port to have a total area of almost 74 square kilometers with more than 43 square kilometers of land area.

The History

The Port of Hamburg was founded by the era’s King of Germany, Frederick I, on May 7, 1189, so it is almost as old as the city where the port is located, Hamburg. The port has been making Hamburg one of the main trading cities in Central Europe very early.

Between the thirteenth century to the sixteenth century, the main river branching for naval trade was at the hands of another port in Germany, the port and city of Lubeck.

However, when the Americas were discovered, which allowed trades from across the Atlantic Ocean to emerge, this Hamburg’s port had beaten every single port in Germany for that position.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the port became the main port for ships and boats carrying people or cargo for Germany and even Central Europe. At that time, there was even the biggest shipping company called the Hamburg America Line.

The port had lost all of its fleets and trading connections because of the two times infamous world wars in the area and also Germany’s partition from 1945 until 1990. Nevertheless, the port could rise from those catastrophes and able to be one of the busiest seaports in the world.

Volume of Transaction in Port of Hamburg

With the cargo transaction volume of 8.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units or TEUs in 2020, the Port of Hamburg was the biggest port in Germany and Europe’s third busiest port after the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and the Port of Antwerp in Belgium.

The 8.7 million TEUs was actually a rather significant drop from the 9.2 TEUs in the year before. However, that number was steadily similar to the numbers of cargo transaction volume from 2015 until 2018.

Interesting Facts

The Port of Hamburg has the Hamburg Cruise Center HafenCity, the Hamburg Cruise Center Altona, and the Hamburg Cruise Center Steinwender as the three passenger terminals which can handle the world’s largest cruise ships.

Those passenger terminals make Hamburg become a major destination for cruise ships from across the Atlantic Ocean or the Norwegian and Baltic Seas. Not only that, but the port also has many shipbuilders and shipyards to support vessels in entire Europe.