display
A port terminal in Hamburg does not change owner and operator very often.
Therefore, Senator for Economic Affairs Michael Westhagemann (independent) and Jens Meier, head of the port administration, HPA were there on Thursday.
The Deufol Group took over the Wallmann Terminal in Wilhelmsburg in February, and the official ceremony followed, which was broadcast online without an audience due to the corona pandemic.
The change of ownership of the terminal is a transition between two family businesses, it promises growth and strengthens the strategic orientation of the Port of Hamburg as a universal port. That is why all speakers on Thursday were satisfied with the transaction. Deufol, headquartered in Wallau near Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, manufactures tailor-made industrial packaging for its customers and offers transport and logistics services.
The listed Deufol SE is majority owned by the founding family Hübner.
The Wallmann Terminal, founded in 1922, had been owned by the Wilde family since the 1960s.
But Hans-Dieter Wilde (70), who wants to retire from business life, had not found a suitable successor in the family and therefore decided to sell to Deufol.
"We had a lot of discussions about the sale and coordinated them closely with the HPA," he said.
display
Deufol operates more than 90 locations in twelve countries and employs around 2,400 people, around 200 of them at several locations in Hamburg, including the 89 employees currently at the Wallmann Terminal. Deufol wants to concentrate its Hamburg business there and thus reduce the number of diversions within the port, among other things. "In the future, our customers will be able to have heavy lift packaging, assembly, consolidation, packaging and shipping carried out at a central location - without having to organize additional transport within the port," said CEO Dennis Huebner. "This reduces the time required for shipping and relieves the roads within the port by around 10,000 truck trips per year."
From the point of view of the Senate and the port administration, Deufol is a good choice for two main reasons. HPA boss Meier called the new owner of the Wallmann Terminal a “solid and at the same time innovative partner” for the Hamburg port industry. On the one hand, the Senate wants to emphasize Hamburg's role as a universal port beyond container handling - for this the few heavy goods terminals for project cargoes with individual items weighing up to several hundred tons are particularly important. In addition to Wallmann, the south-west terminal of C. Steinweg in the eastern port area can handle such cargo. Senator for Economic Affairs Westhagemann said that the takeover of the Wallmann Terminal by Deufol was "a lucky coincidence" in this respect too.
On top of that, Hamburg wants to settle more industry directly on the quayside in the coming years, and the new investor at the Wallmann Terminal fits in with that too.
Deufol boss Huebner said they wanted to modernize the facility digitally, among other things, and "steadily increase" the handling of goods.
With the takeover, the family is giving "a clear commitment to Hamburg as a location".
display
In general, Hamburg strives for a cautious opening in the ownership and operation of the port terminals.
In terms of economic policy, this is tricky.
In particular, the large container terminals of HHLA and Eurogate have not yet worked exclusively for certain shipping companies, which is common practice in other ports, including European ports.
With the new port development plan that the economic authority wants to work out this year, such so-called “dedicated terminals” with participation of shipping companies could become possible in order to tie their cargo more closely to Hamburg.
However, this would also increase the influence of these shipping companies in the Port of Hamburg.
In turn, Hamburg will not give up the port areas in the future either.
They are leased to the terminal operators on a long-term basis.