bremenports with Light and Shadow in the First Half of 2020

31. August 2020

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bremenports have weathered the Corona pandemic better than feared. Although total throughput fell by 4.3 percent in the first half of the year, Bremerhaven was able to slightly increase its seaport cargo handling by 0.8 percent. The biggest setback was in automobile handling, which saw a decrease of 36.3 percent.

(Bremen/Bremerhaven) Light and shadow in the Bremen ports. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bremen ports were able to maintain a stable position in the market and recorded significantly lower throughput declines than initially feared at the beginning of the pandemic. While total throughput in the first half of 2020 fell by 4.3 percent compared to the same period last year to 34.5 million tons, Bremerhaven was able to slightly increase its seaport cargo handling by 0.8 percent despite the challenging situation.

The Senator for Science and Ports, Dr. Claudia Schilling: “When we look at the numbers in detail, we see a very differentiated picture. While automobile handling has dropped sharply due to the pandemic, the decline in container handling is significantly lower than expected. The figures also show that our ports are generally in a robust condition. Now it is important to maintain and further improve the ports’ performance through investments in port infrastructure.”

Automobile Handling Must Endure

Container handling in the first half of the year was 2.3 million TEU. Compared to the first six months of the previous year, this represents a decrease of 4.8 percent. Automobile handling remained at 695,000 vehicles (a decrease of 36.3 percent) compared to the previous year’s figures.

The figures for bulk goods are also to be viewed in a differentiated manner. Although bulk goods recorded a decrease of 18.2 percent to 3.9 million tons, the handling of liquid bulk goods increased by 6.8 percent to 1.07 million tons, as did the landing of grain and feed by 8.8 percent to 271,000 tons. There was also a slight increase of 1.6 percent in merchant ships. In the first half of the year, 2,691 freighters called at the Bremen ports.