Among the increase, the North Sea terminals in Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven recorded a rise in container handling volumes of 1.9% overall.
In Bremerhaven, feeder volumes in transport operations with Russia decreased, which resulted in a handling volume at the terminal of 5.5m teu, 4.3% lower than 2014. Meanwhile, container volumes handled at EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven grew six-fold to 426,751 teu.
After a strong start to the year, EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg was overtaken by the faltering Chinese export trade and idled at 2.3m teu, although this was still up 0.5% year-on-year.
Chairman of the EUROGATE Group management board, Emanuel Schiffer, said: “Our container terminals are predestined to handle new megacarriers, something our customers have in the meantime recognised as well. This has enabled us to stand our ground against the market trend.
“The market environment continues to be challenging, and is characterised by overcapacities and weakening global demand, triggered by the slump in Chinese export trade. For 2016, we are again anticipating a difficult year and are focusing all our efforts on providing customers with the service they expect.”
