Europe’s biggest rail port is launching a new Chinese website that will offer western rail freight providers enormous marketing potential with the Far East. The Port of Hamburg says bringing down language barriers will help cement China’s status as the port’s largest trading partner.

Information on the new site will not be confined to facts and figures on the port itself, but crucially will offer various search functions to enable service providers in Europe and the Far East to find each other and match their needs. The port says the venture is doing further justice to the ‘immense significance’ of its relationship with the People’s Republic and is a ‘natural extension’ of its current range of information.

Intermodal database

Vitally important to freight providers will be the intermodal database, through which all freight train services travelling to and from Hamburg and the European hinterland, and ultimately onto China, are displayed. Users will be able to do a country or city search, which will give block-train links and details of suitable providers, departure frequencies and contact information. Hamburg is Europe’s largest rail port, offering shippers more than 1,900 container block-train connections every week.

Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, said: “China is by a wide margin the Port of Hamburg’s most important trading partner. We aim to do justice to this by now offering our internet presence, not just in German and English as the language of shipping, but also in Chinese. On our travels in China we have found that language still frequently forms a barrier to communication.”

Internet presence

“We aim to reduce this and to facilitate immediate access to comprehensive data on the Port of Hamburg for our Chinese partners and customers through our Chinese internet presence – we hope this results in more direct and effective networking between Chinese and German companies,” added Mr Mattern.

China is by far Hamburg’s strongest trading partner, with a near-29 per cent share in total container throughput, while around half of Germany’s entire trade with China is handled via Hamburg, The website (in Chinese) can be viewed here.