10.07.01
New facility called Ballinkai
After Ballindamm and Ballinhaus, Hamburg now also has a Ballinkai. The already completed quay facility of the Altenwerder container terminal (CTA) has been named after Hapag's great director general.
"Albert Ballin led Hapag to world renown before the first world war and had a major influence on the development of international shipping. Naming this quay after Ballin pays posthumous tribute to Hapag's great director general, as well as emphasizing the close relationship between Hapag-Lloyd and the City of Hamburg," commented Bernd Wrede, chairman of the executive board of Hapag-Lloyd AG, at the recent ceremony at Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA). Bernd Wrede visited the new terminal in Altenwerder along with the parliamentary undersecretary in the federal transport ministry, Angelika Mertens, Hamburg's mayor Ortwin Runde and economics senator Dr. Thomas Mirow and the executive board chairman of Hamburger Hafen- und Lagerhaus AG, Peter Dietrich. Hapag-Lloyd holds a 25 percent stake in CTA.
In his address, Bernd Wrede remarked that Hapag-Lloyd is one of the most important employers in Hamburg, a not inconsiderable taxpayer and one of the main customers of the local economy and particularly the port. Hapag-Lloyd and its partners in the Grand Alliance, the largest consortium in global container shipping, account for one-third of container transhipment volume in the Port of Hamburg.
Bernd Wrede recalled a problem identified by Albert Ballin in his day: Hapag's huge fast steamships, which won the race for the "Blue Riband" on the North Atlantic several times around the turn of the century, were unable to call at Hamburg because of inadequate water depth. "Ships no longer compete for the Blue Riband. And, in addition to the North Atlantic, Hapag-Lloyd today serves all major East-West routes in global container logistics. But the problem of water depth is still with us," Bernd Wrede emphasized, explaining that the largest containerships currently deployed can call at Hamburg only on the flood tide, which causes time restrictions in schedules and thus additional costs. Bernd Wrede concluded: "The Elbe has to be made even deeper if Hamburg wants to remain competitive in the international container transport sector in the long term. This is required both for our four newbuildings on order - which with their 7,500 TEU capacity will be among the largest vessels in the world - and ships now operating that can carry about 5,000 containers."
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