Missed opportunities from Hamburg dredging procrastination

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A perfect storm of a downturn in cargo to and from both China and Russia hit the port of Hamburg’s container throughput in the first six months of the year, which fell to 4.5m teu – a disappointing 6.8% below the same period of 2014. In the port’s half-year review the executives once again reiterated the urgency of implementing the much-delayed dredging of the navigation channels in the River Elbe to, “facilitate improved handling” of ultra-large container vessels (ULCV) at the city port. “Following dredging an ULCV could transport up to 1,800 more loaded containers (teu) both inbound and outbound,” claimed the port’s management.