In the first three months of 2026, freight traffic handled from the port of Hamburg decreased by -2.0% on the same last year, resulting in 27.8 million tons. The Port Authority of the German port, so such as the terminal operator HHLA which handles almost 70% of the port's container traffic, highlighted that The port's activity has been heavily affected by the strong snowfall and unfavorable weather conditions in January, while a marked improvement was recorded in February and March.

Containerized traffic alone, amounting to 19.4 million tons, in the first quarter it fell by -2.7%. In terms of 20' foot containers, traffic is result of 2.0 million TEUs (-1.6%), with flows An increase with Singapore (+5.2%), Malaysia (+54.5%) and India (+14.8%), while it decreased with the main trading partner, China (-3.0%), and with the United States (-24.5%) even if - the port authority specified - a significant recovery towards the end of the quarter. In addition, the container traffic to the eight non-German Baltic States reached 326,000 TEUs, up +0.5%, although it marked a slight decrease in weight amounting to 3.3 million tons, a drop that the Authority attributed to the effects of the cold January weather.

Traffic of conventional goods is in sharp contraction totaled 238 thousand tons, with a reduction of -9.7% mainly caused by the decline in exports of steel.

In the bulk cargo segment, the total volume is remained almost unchanged compared to the first quarter of 2015. 2025 (-0.2%) having stood at 8.1 million tons. The dry bulk cargo recorded an increase of +2.9%, with the largest increases marked by cereals (+148.2%) and minerals (+11.9%), while coal fell (-18.5%). Bulk traffic decreased by -7.8%, in line with imports of petroleum products, which fell by -12.5% to January and February. The port authority announced that last year March there was no negative impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on import volumes of petroleum products.