Sector Development

Container throughput did not perform as well as expected in 2015. While the market research institute Drewry forecast an increase in global container throughput of 5.3 % at the beginning of the year, experts now expect more modest growth of 1.3 % in the reporting period. Apart from the decline in throughput experienced during the 2009 financial crisis, this is the lowest growth rate since global container throughput was first recorded. The unexpectedly weak performance in container throughput had an impact on nearly all shipping regions.

European shipping regions in particular suffered dramatic losses in some areas compared to the previous year. Of particular mention is the year-on-year decline in throughput of 30 % at Russia’s Baltic Sea ports due to the crisis and economic sanctions.

The trend among the major container ports of the North Range – Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and the Bremen ports – as well as the largest ports of the western Baltic Sea (Gdansk, Gothenburg) was mixed. Due to the considerable importance of the Chinese and Russian economies to container throughput, the Port of Hamburg recorded a marked decline in volume of 9.3 % in 2015 and also lost market share to its competitors. Europe's largest container port, Rotterdam, reported a slight decline year-on-year to 12.2 million TEU. Antwerp handled 9.7 million TEU in the reporting period. This positive trend was mainly achieved at the expense of Zeebrugge, the second-largest Scheldt port, which suffered a 23.8 % fall in volume compared to the previous year. The downward trend seen in the previous year continued at the Bremen ports in 2015. Growth at the JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven was spurred by an accident of a container gantry crane in Bremerhaven and its increased integration into the 2M alliance route network. Container throughput increased to 427 thousand TEU. Following dynamic growth over the past few years, the effects of the Russian crisis were clearly noticeable at the Polish port of Gdansk in 2015. The missing Russian transshipment volumes resulted in a 10 % decline in containers handled to 1.1 million TEU. The volume of containers handled in Gothenburg fell by 2.0 % against the previous year to 0.8 million TEU.

Rail freight traffic in Germany was significantly affected by a wage dispute and strike at Deutsche Bahn in spring 2015, and only enjoyed a brief period of respite over the course of the year in view of the economic slowdown and a drop-off in demand for transport. In total, transport volumes fell by 1.0 % in 2015, compared to the previous year. However, traffic performance – transport volume multiplied by the distance travelled – increased slightly by 1.4 % in the same period.

Developments in rail freight traffic were comparable on a European level. Transport demand for rail traffic was already diminished at the beginning of the year, both in Europe as a whole and in those markets of Central and Eastern Europe of particular relevance to HHLA. While transport volumes declined by a total of 3.1 % across Europe in the first three quarters of 2015, the decrease was less severe in Central and Eastern Europe at 1.8 %. Performance varied greatly across the individual markets, however: While transport volumes in Poland and Hungary fell year-on-year by 2.8 % and 3.5 % respectively in the first nine months of 2015, rail cargo in the Czech Republic rose by 4.7 %.