Port's rapid growth leads to expansion
The Bremerhaven container terminal, one of the largest cargo-handling facilities in the world and operated by Bremer Lagerhaus-Gesellschaft (BLG), is being expanded to include two new berths and additional storage space.
Expansion, prompted by the rapid growth of container transport, will allow the terminal to serve 12 container ships at the same time.
BLG is the operating company for the ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The two ports handled 1.53 million teu (twenty-foot equivalent units) last year, a growth of two per cent over the previous year. BLG facilities in Bremen and Bremerhaven handled 18.5 million tonnes of cargo.
BLG was this year voted third-best container operator in the Asian Freight Industry Awards '96, behind the Port of Singapore Container Terminals and Hong Kong International Terminals.
In a statement, company chairman Hans H. Poehl said the main advantages of the Bremerhaven container terminal were direct access to the European highway network and feeder ships that offered direct connections to northern Europe.
It was also linked to a large rail network.
The container terminal has already been expanded twice and the third stage involves an investment of about 700 million deutschemarks (about HK$3.54 billion).
Mr Poehl said the specialisation offered by terminals was 'a fundamental advantage of a performance-oriented port'.
He said: 'There are, for example, special automobile terminals, general cargo terminals, fruit terminals and steel terminals.
'The multi-purpose terminal in Bremen is best suited for general, bulk and project cargo. It is directly connected to the cargo transport centre and the distribution centre.
'All in all, this facility is a complex and versatile service unit for foreign trade.' Mr Poehl said that, as the structure of world trade continued to evolve, the two ports adapted services to meet changing needs.
'In the 1970s, we were the first seaport in the world to integrate a computer and data-processing system into transport operations to speed up administration. Today, transport documents can be sent before the goods are delivered. This creates scope for capacity planning and accelerates administration procedures and payment.
'In the 1980s, we integrated distribution into our services. This means we provide for logistically on-time distribution of merchandise from production to retail shops, or to the assembly lines of industry.
'This is the century of global logistics via Bremen. BLG is in the process of developing into an internationally committed provider of logistics services.
'We will offer organisation, control and monitoring of the entire chain of transport in intercontinental traffic. We are, therefore, able to act as the system manager for complex intercontinental transport procedures on behalf of our customers.
'We have taken important steps. But we will continue to expand and optimise our services.'
