Port of Hamburg Throughput Falls 3.1 Percent in First Half of 2026
Terminal modernisation and lower petroleum imports weigh on a 56.1m tonne result
The Port of Hamburg has recorded a challenging first half of 2026. Total throughput of 56.1 million tonnes was 3.1 percent below the same period last year.
Weather-related losses from January had largely been offset by the end of the first quarter. The half-year result was instead shaped by ongoing terminal modernisation and by a decline in petroleum product imports caused by the war in Iran.
A total of 4.0 million TEU were handled across the first two quarters. In the same period last year volumes were 3.8 percent higher in TEU and 4.0 percent higher in tonnes. Modernisation work by HHLA, intended to enable more efficient handling in future, reduced terminal capacity in the past quarter.
Trade grew with Singapore, up 13.1 percent, Finland, up 24.7 percent, India, up 7.2 percent, and Morocco, up 4.7 percent. The wider market environment remains difficult. The decline in cargo handling with the United States is particularly marked at 13.5 percent, and container handling with China and the United Kingdom also moved negatively over the half.
In the bulk segment, throughput totalled 15.9 million tonnes, around 1.1 percent below last year. Liquid bulk fell sharply by 14.0 percent while dry bulk grew 4.2 percent. Pressure on global energy markets from the war in Iran has cut petroleum imports and reduced biodiesel throughput since April, offset in part by significant growth in ore imports and grain exports.
Conventional general cargo is subject to wide swings, given the high value of the cargo and the comparatively small number of handling operations. Total volume for the half was 535,000 tonnes, a decline of 5.0 percent driven primarily by lower steel product exports, though the fall was less pronounced than at the end of the first quarter.
The composition of the decline matters more than the headline. Capacity withdrawn for modernisation returns; volumes lost to a changed energy trade and to weaker transatlantic flows do not return on a schedule the port controls.
