After several years of drought, the ports of Bremen are on the road to recovery. After the first ten months, container throughput was up 8.6% on the previous year.
Up to and including October, 3.725 million containers were handled, almost 300,000 TEU more than 12 months previously. Of these, around 400,000 TEU were handled in October, around 20,00 TEU more than in the previous year.
From five million TEU in 2021, container throughput initially fell to 4.6 million TEU in 2022 and to just 4.2 million TEU in 2023. This is almost a third less than the record figure of 6.1 million TEU in 2012. Although there were also losses in the other ports, nowhere were the effects of the crisis and changes to the network of liner shipping companies felt as strongly as in Bremerhaven.
The total throughput of the ports of Bremen is reported at 52 million tons, an increase of 7.9%. General cargo throughput rose by 11.1%, while bulk cargo fell by 9.6%. This was mainly due to lower volumes of coal/coke (-60%) and grain (-34%).
A volume of 1.1 million vehicles was achieved in automobile handling. This was another significant decline of -14.9% compared to the previous year (1.25 million). At its peak, more than 2 million vehicles crossed the quays.
