It’s a friendly comment on the traditional rivalry between Germany’s two biggest seaports, much less acute now than it was, but it reflects nonetheless the fact that the two ports continue to pursue quite different strategic paths.

The Weser strategy has been the opposite of Hamburg. As its terminals reach capacity limits, it is looking outward rather than inward, to JadeWeserPort (JWP) and to a significant feeder role in the shadow of the future mega hub.

That preparation is why Mr Kastendiek says that Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany’s second biggest port complex and Europe’s sixth biggest universal port, is “racing at breathtaking speed from one record to another”.

In what he described as a “sensational” 2006, Bremen/Bremerhaven posted 65m tonnes of cargo and 4.6m teu, both around 20% higher than in 2005. It also handled 1.9m vehicles and, with car sector expansion underway, looks set to regain its European lead from Zeebrugge before too long.

Bremen is spending €800m ($1.07bn) on maritime infrastructure this decade to keep pace with growth and develop all available space prior to becoming half of the Jade Weser concept in partnership with Lower Saxony.

The final €500m ($671m) container terminal expansion - CT 4 - will be completed next year by which time four new berths will be ready. “The market is waiting urgently for CT 4.We cannot afford any delays”, says Mr Kastendiek.

When complete, CT 4 will increase Bremerhaven quayside length to nearly 5km, for 14 ships, and boost handling to around 7m teu a year, twice the figure of just eight years ago.

The ships being handled are already the biggest afloat, following the creation last autumn of a 600 metre turning basin, rushed through to host the 11,500 teu Emma Maersk.

Elsewhere, other strategic projects are soaking up millions,among them the expansion of the Osthafen car handling hub and the €233m ($313m) rebuilding of the Kaiserschleuse to allow bigger car carriers into the port.

All of this is now strategically linked with the JWP, just around the coastal corner on the Jade River, where approval has now been granted by regional authorities for construction up to 2010 at a cost of nearly €1bn ($1.34bn). Lower Saxony Economics Minister Walter Hirche says construction is likely to start this summer and JWP managing director Helmut Werner tells Port Strategy that means by August/September.

Supporters of the JWP say it will be the right port at the right time and it’s difficult to fault that view, given current north European port developments.

The Wilhelmshaven terminal will be the only German deep-water facility offering tide-independent handling of fully-laden mega boxships. It will have four berths for ships of up to 430m drawing 16.5m and carrying about 12,000 teu apiece. Capacity is put at up to 2.9m teu a year.

But a cautious Mr Werner notes that appeals could still hold up the construction.“We don’t know whether there will be objections or from whom they might  come”, he tells PS.