Bremen-based terminal operator group EUROGATE saw a 2 percent decrease in its total container volumes in 2015 as it handled 14.5 million TEUs during the year.
The company said that the total handling volume for the German seaports in 2015 also declined by 2 percent, while container handling volumes at the German EUROGATE locations grew faster than the market. In Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg, EUROGATE handled 8.2 million TEUs in 2015, representing a slight rise of 1.5 percent than in 2014.
Taken together, the North Range ports recorded a decline of 1.6 percent in the reference period.
Despite difficult market conditions, EUROGATE’s net operating profit jumped by 13.4 percent to EUR 73.5 million (USD 83.3 million), compared to the previous year’s EUR 64.9 million (USD 73.6 million) operating profit.
EUROGATE revenue was up by 4.5 percent and stood at EUR 591.3 million, while operating profit grew by 19 percent to EUR 91.1 million.
“Despite this positive result we cannot hide the fact that the market conditions in our industry have become more difficult. We are currently confronted by a mature market characterised by highly intense competition. The shipping lines are responding to this with ever larger container ships with transport capacities of more than 18,000 TEUs. For us as terminal operators the challenges lie in coping with the resulting peak handling periods,” Emanuel Schiffer, Chairman of the EUROGATE Group Management Board, said.
The number of container ships of more than 10,000 TEUs calling at the German EUROGATE container terminals in Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg in 2015 grew by almost 35 percent overall to 618 ports of call. One third of these ships (201 in total) already has a transport capacity of more than 18,000 TEUs.
Some 19 percent of these ships docked at Wilhelmshaven. Germany’s only deep-water container terminal, EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven, benefited from the trend towards ever larger vessels and increased its handling figure to 426,751 TEUs, which was 536.2 percent higher than in the previous year. EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg recorded a moderate increase of 0.5 percent to 2.3 million TEUs.
The Italian container terminals showed a positive development overall, although the decline in container handling volumes at the MCT Medcenter Container Terminal in Gioia Tauro, Calabria, clouded the overall balance slightly. The Italian container terminals handled 4.8 million TEUs in 2015, which was 5.5 percent down on 2014.
Source: http://worldmaritimenews.com/