The shipping platform

Location: Bremen is situated 60km inland from Bremerhaven, on the River Weser. General overview: The port has excellent communication links with the N European hinterland. The port handles conventional general cargo, containers, vehicles, fruit, dry and liquid bulk cargoes. It has comprehensive ship repair and warehousing facilities. In addition there is a free-port area. The eight ports in Bremen: 1. Bremerhaven container terminal The state's biggest port complex by area is used for the container business. It is the fourth-largest container port in Northern Europe and handled 4.8 million standard container equivalents (TEUs) in 2020. The biggest ships that travel the world's oceans dock here regularly. Construction of the terminal began in 1968, just two years after the first container ship docked in Europe (in Bremen's Europahafen port). It was clear early on that only a container port deep enough for ocean-going vessels had a chance of becoming a global player. The port has since developed into a gargantuan facility with a quay stretching five kilometres, the longest in the world. The opening followed in September 1971 - which means that the quay will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2021. 2. Bremerhaven car terminal The container terminal's immediate neighbour also boasts record-breaking statistics. The Bremerhaven car terminal is effectively Europe's largest car park, and up to 95,000 cars can be held here before being dispatched worldwide as exports or transported elsewhere in Germany as imports. International logistics provider BLG LOGISTICS handles a total of 1.7 million vehicles here every year (2020). 3. Bremerhaven fishing harbour Bremerhaven is sometimes referred to as the deep freezer of Europe. Frosta, Nordsee, Frozen Fish and Deutsche See – some of Germany's largest producers of frozen foods – are based here and their output includes 2.7 billion fish fingers per year. The land surrounding the premises of these companies is known as the fishing harbour. 4. Cruise terminal Until the pandemic, Cruise tourism was booming, both internationally and in Bremen. Cruise ships on North Sea routes were increasingly including Bremerhaven in their itineraries. They arrived at the cruise terminal, where passengers join the ship or disembark for day trips in the local area. 5. Bremen industrial docks The first of the four ports in the city of Bremen itself is located in the north of the Hanseatic city. It accounts for about half of the city's transshipment volume of around 12 million tonnes. Ships that have passed through the 250-metre Oslebshauser lock use the docks to load and unload steel, steel products, timber, project cargo, vehicle and machinery parts, bulk cargo, construction materials, waste and lubricating oils. 6. Timber and works quay The timber and works quay, which is located upstream from the industrial docks in Bremen's Überseestadt (New Harbour District), handles a wide variety of commodities for the food industry. These include animal feed, grain, cocoa and coffee. Kaffee HAG, which invented decaffeinated coffee, is headquartered here, as is flour producer Roland Mills United. 7. Neustädter Hafen The port of Neustädter Hafen is located on the left side of the Weser river and specialises in breakbulk, which is any type of cargo that does not fit in a shipping container. These include steel products such as pipes, timber, machinery and machine parts. Components for wind turbines and paper rolls for the paper industry are brought ashore here. 8. Hemelingen Weserhafen The Weserhafen port in Hemelingen is the furthest inland of the eight ports. It is purely a river port and does not accommodate large sea-going vessels as they would be unable to pass under the bridges downstream in central Bremen or through the lock at the Weser barrage. The port complex is relatively new, having been built in 1968. It specialises in the transport of steel, other metals, scrap, sand and gravel to inland destinations. The entrance lock to the industrial port can accommodate Panamax vessels with a max draught of 9.45m. Because of the lock, the 7 wet dock basins are tideless, which greatly reduces the time required for loading and unloading. Traffic figures: Approx 2,230 vessels, 11,300,000t of cargo, 4,450,000TEU handled annually. Load line zone: North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone II, Winter Nov 1 to Mar 31, Summer Apr 1 to Oct 31. Max size: Tidal berths: Max LOA 250m, draught 10.7m (inbound), 10.35m (outbound). Vessels entering Oslebshausen Lock: Max LOA 230m, max beam 32.3m, max draught 9.45m. Vessels above LOA 190m, draught 7.6m are restricted by tide. Vessels of above mentioned dimensions can only pass the locks under certain weather conditions and at certain states of the tide. The max dimensions mentioned do not necessarily apply to all berths, quays or areas within the port.