General cargo led the growth with a 6.1% rise to 102.7m tons, with bulk cargo contributing a 1.7% increase to 43m tons.
Container throughput reached 9.7m teu in 2014, a growth of 5.1% which the port believes is above average growth for ports in Northern Europe. Hamburg is aiming to break the container record it set this year by passing the 10m teu mark in 2015.
A 9.8% increase in container services with China was the main cause of the container boost, accounting for some 3m teu in 2014. Strong growth was also reported with Poland, up 22.6% to 395,000 teu, and India, up 14.9% to 232,000 teu.
Trade restrictions and the weakness of the rouble had a negative effect on some services, with transhipment services in the Baltic region achieveing only 0.5% growth, and a 7.8% drop in throughput with Russia to 662,000 teu.
The rise in bulk cargo throughput was powered mainly by coal and ore imports, which grew by 6.9% to 6.1m tons and 4.4% to 9.1m respectively. Bulk liquids fell by 0.8% to 14.4m tons, with slight drops in palm and soya oils as well as the impact on chemical cargoes of the restructuring of a large Hamburg refinery.
As well as aiming to break the 10m teu mark, Hamburg expects to reach 149m tons of throughout in 2015.
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