The Port of Hamburg strengthened its growth in the first nine months of 2025, with container volumes rising 8.4 per cent to 6.3 million TEU, driven by expanding trade with Asia and Europe despite a decline in US shipments.
While container traffic with the USA declined, trade with Asia and Europe showed positive momentum.
From January to September 2025, seaborne cargo throughput rose 3.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 86.8 million tonnes.
Container throughput increased 8.4 per cent to 6.3 million TEU, equivalent to 61.3 million tonnes of containerised general cargo (+5.4 per cent).
Bulk cargo throughput remained largely stable at 24.6 million tonnes (-0.8 per cent), with grab cargo increasing 9.4 per cent, supported by stronger coal (+16.4 per cent) and ore imports (+3.8 per cent).
Container throughput growth was driven by trade with Asia (+11.0 per cent) and Europe (+14.0 per cent).
In contrast, throughput with the USA fell 23.9 per cent to 395,000 TEU.
Trade with China rose steadily to 1.8 million TEU (+7.9 per cent). Southeast Asian hubs showed strong growth, with Malaysia up 89.8 per cent to 273,000 TEU and India up 45.5 per cent to 214,000 TEU.
Intra-European trade performed strongly, notably Denmark (+37.1 per cent to 147,000 TEU), Finland (+26.5 per cent to 195,000 TEU) and Poland (+18.9 per cent to 276,000 TEU).
New liner services to Southern Europe, the Mediterranean and South America in Q3 contributed positively to container throughput.
Transhipment volumes maintained first-half growth, rising 22.5 per cent to 2.4 million TEU.
Rail transport remained stable at 2.0 million TEU (-0.5 per cent), with high capacity utilisation of container trains continuing. Overall, hinterland container volumes increased 1.4 per cent to 3.9 million TEU.
Recently, Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM) reinforced its cooperation with Chinese ports this year, hosting a series of three roundtable events in Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Shanghai.
