In recent years, the global shipping industry has been under tremendous pressure under the continuing impact of the economic crisis. Although Hamburg, the second largest port in Europe and the largest port in Germany, has not yet returned to its former prosperity, at least it has obvious advantages in the competition with major ports in Northern Europe, and even achieved recovery growth last year.

In 2016, the cargo throughput of the Port of Hamburg was 138.2 million tons, a slight increase of 0.3% year-on-year. Among them, the business volume of the Port of Hamburg to China increased by 1.6%. Ingo Aeglov, co-CEO of the Hamburg Port Marketing Association, believes that the increase in trade with China is the main reason for the gradual recovery of the Hamburg Port business.

Ingo said: “Although the container throughput of the Port of Hamburg only increased by a small margin last year, compared to the 2015 recession, we think this is a very good situation. We also hope to continue to maintain this situation. Although it is not obvious, it is still a growth trend. This is related to the trading countries of the Port of Hamburg, such as our most important trading partner China. China's economic growth can be said to directly affect the cargo situation of the Port of Hamburg."

He said that under the influence of the new normal of China's economy, the port of Hamburg's shipping volume once fell into a trough. However, under the framework of the Chinese government's "One Belt One Road" initiative, Hamburg's harbor hinterland has particularly obvious advantages in transportation and has great potential for cooperation with China. Ingo said that the Port of Hamburg has offices in ports in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places and attaches great importance to maintaining close contact with employees in these offices.

Ingo said: "We are very concerned about China's developments. For example, the Chinese government has vigorously promoted the construction of the Hungary-Serbia international railway line connecting Budapest and Belgrade, and Hamburg is also building a container hub port in Budapest. There is a lot of room for cooperation between the two parties. At the same time, 12 trains from Hamburg depart to China every week, the so-called overland Silk Road. We also look forward to further cooperation with China in this regard."

In order to optimize services for Chinese customers, the Port of Hamburg has launched a Chinese webpage on its official website since the end of last year. Matthias Schultz, head of Port Asia and Overseas Market Development Department, said: "On the one hand, we have translated the web page into Chinese, and on the other hand, we have also adjusted the content settings and put the database query in a prominent position. For example, Chinese companies can narrow the search scope by selecting qualifiers. The advantage of all the information in this process is presented in Chinese is that customers from China can more easily find the services they need and the corresponding local companies. And then cooperate."

Liu Guosheng, chairman of the German-Chinese Exchange Association, told reporters that in 2016, China continued to maintain its position as the largest trading partner of the Port of Hamburg, and the business volume between Hamburg and Chinese ports reached nearly 2.6 million TEUs. At the same time, Hamburg also has the largest port freight railway station in Europe, and nearly half of the traffic in the port hinterland is realized by rail transportation. He said: "The Hamburg city government is very serious about the development of China's'Belt and Road' projects, and feels that it is the intersection of the'Belt and Road' maritime and land Silk Roads."

In the opinion of Theo Sommer, publisher of the German "Times" and an expert on international relations, the double-digit growth rate of China’s economic development slowed to 6.7%, making the growth of the port of Hamburg’s container traffic almost stagnant. Trade is very important to Hamburg, so Hamburg will make every effort to strengthen cooperation with China: "I firmly believe that the'Belt and Road' initiative will help further promote bilateral cooperation. But at the same time, I don’t think that in this framework The rising rail transport will gradually take the place of shipping. After all, shipping enjoys the advantages of low prices and large volumes, so the two will prosper together. I hope the Port of Hamburg will once again welcome a large number of containers from China."