Port of Halifax has joined the Port of Hamburg Marketing organization (HHM) as its first North American member. The ports of Halifax and Hamburg are linked by Transatlantic trade and the cruise business. Hamburg, as a port and logistics base offers Port of Halifax optimal conditions and an ideal marketing platform for promoting it with shipping companies and shippers in trade and industry.
Geoffrey Machum, Chairman of Halifax Port Authority, and Axel Mattern, Executive Board Member of Port of Hamburg Marketing, signed the membership agreement in the course of an official visit to the port by a delegation headed by Stephen McNeil, Premier of the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. The business session organized by HHM for representatives of business and politics as well as the Canadian Embassy culminated with a tour
of Hamburg’s Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) and offered an occasion for forging deeper business contacts. “For Halifax, which can be reached from Hamburg in just six days, “our membership with Port of Hamburg Marketing opens up excellent new opportunities for connecting with member companies and firms in the export and import fields based in Hamburg and further inland. For us, Port of Hamburg Marketing is an ideal marketing platform,” explained Geoffrey Machum.
“We are delighted that with the Port of Halifax, we have been able to gain a first member in North America, and against the background of increasing Transatlantic trade between Northern Europe and North America, we see a large number of points of reference for joint marketing activities with our new member. Both sides will profit here from targeted networking at events and trade fair participations in markets of importance for both of these port and logistics hubs,” stressed Axel Mattern.
Sailing weekly from Hamburg and transporting wheeled cargo and vehicles in addition to containerized cargo, ACL’s Transatlantic ConRo Service calls at Halifax. In 2013 8.6 million tonnes of cargo, including 442,000 TEUs, were discharged and loaded at handling terminals in Halifax.
For 2013, Port of Hamburg reported total seaborne cargo throughput with Canadian ports of 4.34 million tonnes, representing a 12.3 per cent increase over 2012. Five shipping lines transport containerized and multi-purpose cargoes and vehicles on liner services between Hamburg and Canadian ports. Among Canada-bound exports, machinery, chemical products and automotive parts, especially, make the Atlantic crossing via Hamburg. On the imports side, iron ore, coals and agricultural produce dominate the cargoes handled in Germany’s largest port.