Hamburg Süd adds Adelaide as SA’s Asia trade swells

ADELAIDE – Hamburg Süd has added Adelaide as a port of call between Fremantle and Melbourne on its Southbound Asian services to accommodate an increasing volume of trade between Asia and South Australia.

The initiative creates the only Eastbound sailing from Adelaide direct to North Asian ports,

with Hamburg Süd offering the fastest available transit times from Adelaide to Japan (Yokohama and Osaka), South Korea (Busan) and Northern China (Qingdao, Shanghai and Ningbo).

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that South Australian exports to China reached AUD2.6 billion in the 12 months to February this year, with average growth of 19.5 per cent over five years.

South Australia’s Minister for Investment and Trade, Martin Hamilton-Smith, says the value of South Australia’s exports to the ASEAN region has increased by more than 30 per cent over five years. ASEAN is now the second most important market for South Australia, after China, at some AUD2 billion a year.

“Merchandise exports are led by commodities like copper and wheat, but there has been continued growth in non-bulk, high-value exports such as meat and seafood,” Hamilton-Smith says.

The South Australian Government has adopted as an economic priority the strengthening of trade links with the broader region, building on existing engagement strategies for China and India.

According to SA’s Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Stephen Mullighan, many South Australian exporters have been forced till now to move containers by rail to Melbourne or to ship to Singapore for trans-shipment to North Asia.

He says the five Northeast Asian ports included in the Hamburg Sud service are among the top 30 container ports in the world, opening new possibilities for export commodities like grain, wine, tuna bait, citrus, hay, meat, oil seeds and copper.

Hamburg Sud’s new fixed weekly service from Singapore and onwards to Northeast Asian ports arrives in Adelaide on Tuesdays and departs on Wednesdays.

Hamburg Süd has 11 vessels (4,200TEU capacity, with 300 reefer plugs) servicing its Australia-Asia trade lanes.