THE Port of Hamburg posted a 6.8 per cent decline in first half year-on-year container throughput to 4.5 million TEU, said the port authority.

The downturn was blamed on weak foreign trade with the port's two leading trading partners, China and Russia.

China volumes fell 10.9 per cent to 1.3 million TEU while Russian throughput was down 35.9 per cent to 212,000 TEU.

"Since Hamburg, with its strong Baltic trades, handles six per cent more transshipments than Antwerp or Rotterdam, the downturn hit the German port hard," said the port authority. 

A large part of the cargo for/from China and Russia is transshipped via Hamburg, being transferred from large containerships to feeders and vice versa."In the first half, China's total foreign trade shrank 6.9 per cent. The weak trend in foreign trade was especially apparent in exports from China to Europe on account of the costlier yuan. 

"During the first six months of the years the euro was on average 19 per cent lower than the yuan, making purchase of Chinese goods costlier for European importers," explained Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing.

On container traffic with Russia, in addition to the trade sanctions still in force, other factors such as the weak rouble, the fall in the oil price and economic recession have also caused the distinct downturn in container throughput in Hamburg. 

"Goods from abroad are becoming costlier for Russian importers. Willingness to consume or to invest in Russia is noticeably dwindling. The IMF is assuming a 3.4 per cent drop in Russian GDP this year," said Mr Mattern. 

"The fact that 32.1 per cent fewer containers were handled in the first half of the year in Russia's Baltic ports than in 2014 serves to underline this description of the current economic situation," said another port official.