A port does business with its England expertise: six times a week there is trailer ballet in Cuxhaven.

Then the RoRo ferry from the English port of Immingham docks.

Manoeuvrable tractors quickly pull one truck trailer after the other out of the ship and park them.

And the waiting trailers are loaded just as quickly and skilfully and sent on their way to the United Kingdom.

"Roll on, roll off" (roll on board, roll down) is the name of the tried and tested fast charging principle.

Brexit, the UK's exit from the European Union (EU), is ticked off for the German ports.

Business in England is going well, even if the island neighbor has not been part of the domestic market since the beginning of 2021 and is a customs foreign country.

Of all German ports, Cuxhaven has had to adapt to the new location the most.

"Traffic to England is of vital importance to us," says the managing director of the terminal operator Cuxport, Hans-Peter Zint.

“Cuxhaven is the only port that offers a freight ferry service between Germany and England.” This service accounts for around four fifths of the handling in Cuxhaven. There are other connections to Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Iceland.

28 percent growth

"We generate a large part of our revenues on the UK market," says Ortolf Barth, local representative of the DFDS shipping company. DFDS is active in the Mediterranean as well as on the North and Baltic Seas and operates the route Cuxhaven-Immingham. The catchment area of ​​the port of Immingham on the east coast of England includes centers such as Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, says Barth. In addition to trailers, cars are the most important cargo. BMW exports its cars to Great Britain via Cuxhaven, from where Jaguar and Land Rover cars are imported to Germany.

For other German ports, England is less important. Volkswagen imports and exports its cars via Emden - with a share of England traffic, as André Heim says, managing director of the marketing company Seaports of Lower Saxony. In addition to Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven or Hamburg, the huge container ships from overseas often also call at English ports - but only for loading or unloading, not for transports on short European routes.

In Hamburg, container transport with Great Britain grew strongly by 28 percent in 2020, reports Ina Luderer, Vice-Managing Director of the Hamburg Port Association (UVHH).

The British economy filled its stores again before leaving the customs union.

But given the total throughput of 8.5 million standard containers (TEU) in Hamburg, 264,000 boxes from or to Great Britain only accounted for a good 3 percent.

In 2020, German-British sea freight traffic increased by 6.9 percent to 15.3 million tons, according to the Central Association of German Seaport Companies.

Then came the London exit from the customs union.

But now, a good six months later, Brexit is no longer a problem, says Managing Director Daniel Hosseus in Hamburg.

"Great Britain is a normal third country like the USA."

Cuxhaven also felt the English gate closing orders at the end of 2020 from the load on the ferries.

“Then came January 1st.

In the first week we barely had a load, ”says Zint.

But in terms of organization, the terminal, shipping company and customers had prepared themselves for the new rules.

“We got together with customs at an early stage,” says Zint.

The registration and handling of the cargo is electronic, two hours before the ship's departure is sufficient.

The long run-up to Brexit was well used, confirms Frank Mauritz from the main customs office in Oldenburg.

All positions in Cuxhaven have been filled.

In the electronic clearance system Atlas, customs offices in different locations could relieve each other.

“The collaboration with everyone involved worked wonderfully,” says Mauritz.

30,000 containers

According to the Federal Statistical Office, German-British foreign trade fell steadily after 2015, and Brexit was casting its shadow.

Overall, the exchange of goods with Great Britain is declining, says Cuxport boss Zint.

But in Cuxhaven the freight volume is meanwhile back to "pre-crisis level".

His rule of thumb: 300,000 cars, 30,000 trailers, 30,000 containers and 300,000 tons of general cargo per year.

There are more uncertainties because of the corona pandemic or the changeable auto economy.

Cuxport primarily markets the England connection as a convenient alternative to long truck trips across France and Belgium and the Canal.

The new customs controls have made this more arduous, says Zint: “We are doing unaccompanied transport here.” Neither the drivers nor the tractor units have to travel to England for their freight.