Chinese shipping companies want to show their colours in Hamburg
Hamburg handling 3 million TEU per year is a leading port and logistics site for Chinese goods in Europe
China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (Cosco) and China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) count among the world’s ten biggest shipping companies. In the frame of a delegation journey with Hamburg’s Mayor Olaf Scholz to China, the Heads of both companies emphasised the significance of the port of Hamburg as a hub for their business with Europe. Both shipping companies want to further strengthen their locations in the port of Hamburg and expand their business, counting on a fast implementation of the fairway adjustment project on the Elbe river.
The Cosco shipping company has been controlling its container leasing business and its feeder line from its European headquarters in Hamburg since recently. The container leasing division was previously located in the UK. The feeder line is a new business division of Cosco Container Lines Europe GmbH. For this purpose, they established two new departments with 11 employees in the city of Hamburg. Whereas the international container trades are coordinated from the Cosco Container Lines Company’s headoffice in Shanghai, the European headquarters in Hamburg are in charge of the European feeder business. Form the company, Hamburg is particularly interesting due to its good connections to the German and European hinterland on all transport modes.
Also CSCL intents to further expand its activities in Hamburg. This shipping company appreciates particularly the goods living conditions of the North German port and logistics site. However, the management board urges for a fast implementations of the fairway adjustment project for the Elbe river, so Hamburg remains nautically within reach for large container vessels. Cosco and CSCL are among the shipping companies already using large container vessels with capacities of up to 19,000 TEU on the trades between China and Hamburg. Until 2018, they plan to launch a total of 22 new ships with capacities to 21,000 TEU.
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