In announcing its 2017 cargo results the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) has highlighted its work to address infrastructure challenges from bigger ships and prepare the port for a digital future.

The challenge from bigger vessels in terms of physical infrastructure is clear and measurable, but how to meet the needs of so-called digital supply chains is a more difficult question.

Hamburg is grappling with the issue now: “We have many questions to address concerning the future. We must get to grips with Industry 4.0, with digitalization and how this will change supply chains. We must develop the port to enable it to play a prominent role. The Port of Hamburg must become a Port 4.0. We will improve the infrastructure, implement the fairway adjustments and secure good general conditions. When extending the port it will be important to identify how Hamburg as a broad based universal port can be economically sustainable, strong and generate new impulses. We are ready to take new paths – in usage, the type of development and in the partners we will achieve this with,” said Senator Horch, Hamburg’s Senator for Economics, Transport and Innovation.

The Port of Hamburg has recognised that to participate in new digital supply chains a port needs, as starting point, the connectivity to support mobile communications and IoT sensors that will become the backbone of supply chain planning. This cannot be left to terminal operators to manage with disparate local Wifi networks.

Hamburg is is testing a new 5G network. 5G “offers a level of security, reliability and speed that current mobile networks are unable to match. It provides the HPA with a wholly new set of application options,” said Jens Meier, CEO of the HPA. “The testbed allows us to study the future technology and co-shape the standard, which will not only benefit the port but the entire city of Hamburg.”

Specifically, the port has partnered with Deutsche Telekom and Nokia to set up a 5G test area spanning around 8000 hectares at the port. The project will test the ability to engineer a 5G network into “network slices” that transmit different data streams, such as traffic light and water level sensors data, for example, separately and with a level of network reliability that can support process automation.

Back in the bricks and mortar world of physical infrastructure, the water depth in the Elbe fairway constrained Hamburg’s container growth. At 136.5 million tons, total seaborne cargo in 2017 was “stable at a high level”. Container throughput, however, dropped 1% to 8.8M TEU.

Loaded container volume was unchanged at 7.6M TEU, but empty volumes dropped 88,000 TEU to 1.2M TEU.”Against the background of the still outstanding fairway adjustment on the Elbe, and the economic sanctions still in force on trade with Russia that is of such significance for the Port of Hamburg, the result in the container segment is in line with our expectations,” said Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing.

The narrow tidal window at Hamburg leaves less opportunity to top off vessels with empty containers, and the port believes this is causing lines to route empty boxes through other ports. Mattern noted that of the large northern European ports Hamburg handled the lowest percentage of empty containers (13%), and the highest percentage of loaded containers (87%).

The importance of improving the tidal window is magnified as more large vessels are deployed. “In 2017 Hamburg alone received 102 calls by ULCVs in the size bracket 18,000 to 20,000+ TEU, a rise of 52.2%. In March the “CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery”, with a slot capacity of 20,776 TEU, the largest-ever containership is expected to call in Hamburg for the first time,” HPA noted.

The fairway project is a top priority. “Once the fairway adjustment has been completed, we shall be able to handle substantially more containers and bulk cargo in Hamburg. Terminals and other port facilities are well prepared for 

growth. Increased draft on the Elbe and simplification of manoeuvring by the construction of a passing zone on the Elbe downstream from Hamburg will facilitate more efficient use of hold capacities and crucially simplify passing for ultra-large vessels,” added HHM Executive Board colleague Ingo Egloff.