The intermodal hinterland link: a factor in competition.(Port Of Hamburg)(Advertisement)

Though Hamburg, as a powerful industrial and trading center situated in the Elbe metropolitan region, generates at least one-third of seaborne imports and exports, the bulk of cargoes handled in the port's foreign trade are sent inland by rail, truck, feeder ship or inland waterway craft. The volume involved actually amounts to more than 55 million tons per year.

For sheer variety of modes of transport deployed--truck, rail, feeder ships and inland waterway craft--on the North European port scene, Hamburg offers an especially well-developed network of intermodal transport links with its hinterland. The port hinterland in Germany plus adjacent neighboring states of …