Maritime Newsletter

Eurogate Traffic Drops at Key Terminals - 2009-04-20

Eurogate, Europe’s biggest ocean container handler, reported first quarter traffic at its Hamburg and Bremerhaven terminals plunged nearly 18 percent from a year ago to 1.6 million TEUs. Bremerhaven’s traffic fell 22.1 percent to one million TEUs while Hamburg was down 9.4 percent at 618,000 TEUs. The company said the global economic recession also is impacting its terminals outside Germany, including Italy, where it owns 33 percent of Contship Italia, operator of the Gioia Tauro terminal, Europe’s biggest transshipment hub. It also owns terminals in Lisbon, Portugal, and Tangier, Morocco. Eurogate has postponed all non-essential investment in 2009 after spending only $314 million of its $620 million budget last year. It also plans to cut hours for workers at its Bremerhaven terminal from the beginning of May. Eurogate handled a record 14.2 million TEUs in 2008 driven mainly by a 12.4 increase in Bremerhaven to 5.5 million TEUs and a 7.7 percent gain at Hamburg to 2.7 million TEUs. The Bremen-based company posted a record profit of $153 million on revenues of $944 million.

Source: shipping digest.com