A delegation trip to the first Estonian-German Port Days in Tallinn starts on April 23.
During their visit to Estonia, around 35 participants want to further intensify cooperation between the ports of the Baltic state and the German port locations of Lübeck and Hamburg.
The delegation will be led by Lübeck’s Mayor Jan Lindenau. He will be accompanied by Lübeck’s Senator for Economic and Social Affairs, Pia Steinrücke, and the Managing Director of Lübecker Hafen-Gesellschaft (LHG), Sebastian Jürgens. The delegation from Hamburg will be headed by Niels Wiecker, Head of the Port and Logistics Department at the Ministry of Economics and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and Marina Basso Michael, Regional Director Europe at Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM).
They will be joined by representatives of the Economic Development Agency and the Chamber of Commerce of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), the Hamburg Economic Development Agency, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), the Transfennica shipping company and other logistics service providers.
German-Estonian Port Forum on April 24
The focus of the delegation’s trip will be the Estonian-German Port Forum on Thursday, April 24 in Tallinn, which will be attended by prominent figures including the Estonian Minister of Infrastructure, Kuldar Leis. The event serves as a central platform for the exchange of information on current developments and challenges in the maritime industry in both countries.
“With the Port Forum, we want to further expand the positive logistical development between Germany and Estonia,” explains LHG Managing Director Jürgens. “After all, Germany accounts for over eleven percent of Estonia’s imports.” Nevertheless, there are still logistics service providers and industrial companies that choose the land route by truck for transports between the two countries because they are not familiar with alternative transport routes via the Baltic Sea. “The connection by sea and rail is the most ecologically sensible option,” emphasizes Jürgens.
Regular ship connections already exist
The Finnish shipping company Transfennica, for example, currently connects the port of Paldiski with Lübeck three times a week. There are also three weekly container liner services to Muuga, which are handled via Hamburg.
“Even closer cooperation with the Estonian port and transport industry is one of Hamburg’s strategic focuses in the Baltic region,” says Wiecker, Head of Department. “Especially in a geopolitically tense situation, the historically grown partnership with the Baltic states offers a solid basis for sustainable development and resilience.”
The delegation trip is being realized through the close cooperation of LHG and HHM and supported by numerous partners – including Port of Tallinn, Invest Estonia, HHLA TK Estonia, the shipping company Transfennica and the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce.
