Throughput at the Port of Hamburg stayed strong after the third quarter of 2025, with growth in Asia and Europe offsetting continued declines in U.S. container traffic.
Port of Hamburg – the third busiest port in Europe – said container throughput continued to grow during the period, while bulk cargo throughput was stable.
Seaborne cargo throughput grew to 86.8 million tonnes in the months from January to September 2025, up 3.4% year-on-year.
As in the first six months of the year, this growth was driven by a positive trend in container throughput, which rose to 6.3 million standard containers (TEU), increasing 8.4%.
On a per-tonne basis, containerised general cargo throughput grew to 61.3 million tonnes, or up 5.4% compared to the same period in 2024.
Bulk cargo throughput at the Port of Hamburg was nearly unchanged from the same period last year, down 0.8% to 24.6 million tonnes. Growth in grab cargo, up 9.4% was supported by higher coal and ore imports, which rose 16.4% and 3.8% respectively.
Growth with markets in Asia and Europe
Growth in container throughput in the first three quarters continued to be driven by the Asia (up 11.0% year-on-year) and Europe (up 14.0%) trade areas.
Port of Hamburg reported that trade complications continued to weigh on container traffic with the United States, leading to a 23.9% decline to 395,000 TEUs.
In the Asian region, by contrast, trade with China continued growing steadily to 1.8 million TEU (up 7.9%).
The port noted that trade with Malaysia saw a 89.8% increase to 273,000 TEUs — continuing to benefit from a growing hub function in Southeast Asia. Trade with India was up 45.5% to 214,000 TEUs also consolidated its high growth rate and thus its importance for throughput in the Port of Hamburg.
In intra-European trade, Denmark, Finland and Poland posted notable gains, rising 37.1% to 147,000 TEUs, 26.5% to 195,000 TEUs and 18.9% to 276,000 TEUs, respectively.
Hinterland container throughput on the rise
In the third quarter, additional liner services with Southern Europe, the Mediterranean region and South America called at the Port of Hamburg for the first time, which had a positive impact on container throughput.
The port said even after nine months, box throughput in the transhipment segment managed to maintain the growth of the first half of the year (up 22.5% to 2.4 million TEU, compared to the same period of the previous year).
The share of containers moved by rail held steady at 2.0 million TEU, down 0.5% from last year. High utilisation of container trains persisted, while total hinterland transports at the Port of Hamburg increased 1.4% to 3.9 million TEUs.
