Despite the ongoing rearrangements of several shipping consortia in the past financial year, EUROGATE was once again able to keep container handling volumes stable. Overall, container handling volumes at all 12 locations in and around Europe came to 14.4 million TEUs (standard containers) in 2017. The volume of intermodal container transports increased by 5.2 per cent to over 1.0 million TEUs.
At good 5.5 million TEUs, the container terminals in Bremerhaven recorded a throughput largely on par with 2016 (+0.9 per cent). At this location, the reshaping of the large shipping consortia and the resulting extensive scheduling changes in April/May 2017 did impact the support positively during the second part of the year.
At EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg, by contrast, handling volumes decreased by 25.6 per cent to just below 1.7 million TEUs. The restructuring of the alliances and consequential loss of customers as well as the bankruptcy of the long-standing customer Hanjin had a negative impact.
With an increase of 15.1 per cent in 2017, EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven recorded double-digit growth for the second consecutive year. Amongst others as a result of the new alliance structure, monthly handling volumes doubled from May onwards.
The new location in Limassol also got off to a good start, with a handling volume in the region of 345,000 TEUs in its first year of operation.
Michael Blach, Chairman of the EUROGATE Group Management Board comments: “On balance, the results generated by the container terminals will be improved in comparison to the previous year, which in light of the slight downturn that the overall trend in container turnover is facing, is pleasant. Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven certainly benefited from the realignment of the shipping alliances. Although 2017 was a good year, the year-end results have shown that it has become generally more difficult to generate sustained positive earnings and defend our market position.”
Source: Eurogate