Half year results

 

Half-year results: After a good performance last year, the PORT OF KIEL once again recorded positive growth in the first half of 2024, sending a stable signal in difficult times. Just last year, the port closed the year with record volumes and passenger numbers.

(Kiel, 11th July 2024) The half-year results of SEEHAFEN KIEL GmbH & Co. KG show a positive trend: the port of Kiel handled 3.8 million tonnes of freight in the first half of the year - two percent more than in the same period last year. This means that the northern German port is continuing its positive growth trend of recent years despite the general economic weakness.

"We are taking positive signals from the first half of the year," says Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director of SEEHAFEN KIEL GmbH & Co. KG. "Especially in the currently rather challenging economic times, it is an encouraging sign for our company that we continue to see a growth trend in large parts of our handling business."

Volume development in the port of Kiel

The daily ferry connections to Scandinavia are among the most important transport and freight axes between the state capital and its Scandinavian neighbours - but they are also seismographs for national economic developments. The weak Swedish economy and restrained economic growth in Norway in the first half of the year also had an impact on freight trends on the two ferry routes, which recorded slight declines overall.

By contrast, the freight trend at Kiel's highest-volume terminal, the Ostuferhafen, is consistently positive: On the route to Lithuania, the growth trend from the last quarters of 2023 will continue with a significant increase in the first half of 2024. With a slightly reduced timetable but larger ferries in operation, freight traffic on the highest-volume ferry route between Germany and the Baltic States is developing promisingly. The positive trend of the previous year also continued in the paper handling segment: with significant volume increases, this freight business remains a model of success in Kiel. Only at the beginning of the year, additional storage capacity was created for Swedish customers at Kiel's Ostuferhafen in order to respond to the positive development from the port side.

The handling of bulk goods at the external terminals of the port of Kiel is also gaining importance: a low double-digit increase in the handling of building materials not only reflects the high demand from the local construction industry, but also the importance of the port of Kiel for local and regional construction projects.

Cruise business

As one of the cruise ports with the most passengers in Northern Europe, the port of Kiel is once again looking at a promising cruise season this year. With 82 calls so far (2023: 88 calls) and 380,000 cruise passengers, the port of Kiel has welcomed fewer ships but more passengers (+ 2 %) than in the previous year. With a total of 728,000 ferry passengers, the port is also slightly above the previous year's result (+1.3 %), which is mainly due to the good passenger development towards Scandinavia. ###