The five-millionth container arrived in the Port of Hamburg this year on board the "P&O Nedlloyd Sydney" , the first time the Port of Hamburg exceeded the 5 million mark for standard containers ( TEU ) ( twenty-foot equivalent unit ) . In the presence of representatives of the shipping company, the Ministry for the Economy and Labour as well as the company Hamburger Hafen- und Lagerhaus Aktiengesellschaft, the container with 10.256 t of auto-motive spares was unloaded on the Burchardkai facility.

The "P&O Nedlloyd Sydney" sails on the North America service of the Grand Alliance and came to Hamburg from New York via Southampton, Le Havre and Rotterdam. From here, the vessel, which is capable of carrying 2,890 TEU, continues its journey to Charleston.

The Port of Hamburg became a "container millionaire" as early as in 1984, the second million was reached in 1991, and the third in 1996. Only in the year 2000 was the barrier of 4 million TEU finally surpassed.

For the year 2002 a total transshipment volume of more than 5.3 million was anticipated. This is equivalent to a 14 per cent increase year-on-year. According to Hafen Hamburg Marketing e.V., this means that Hamburg will once again record the strongest growth of all Northern European continental ports this year, as was the case in 2001.

In the Port of Rotterdam, the number of containers handled increased by 7% from 6.1 million TEU in 2000 to 6.5 million TEU in 2002.