Hamburg

The Port of Hamburg (German mostly: Hamburger Hafen) is a port in Hamburg, Germany, on the river Elbe. The harbour is located 110 kilometres from the mouth of the Elbe into the North Sea.

It is named Germany's "Gateway to the World" and is the largest port in Germany. It is the second-busiest port in Europe (after the port of Rotterdam), in terms of TEU throughput, and 11th-largest worldwide. 9.74 million containers were handled in Hamburg in 2008.

The harbour covers an area of 73.99 km² (64.80 km² usable), of which 43.31 km² (34.12 km²) are land areas. The location is naturally advantaged by a branching Elbe, creating an ideal place for a port complex with warehousing and transshipment facilities. The extensive free port also enables toll-free shipping.

Hamburg ( /ˈhæmbɜrɡ/; German pronunciation: [ˈhambʊɐ̯k], local pronunciation [ˈhambʊɪç]; Low German/Low Saxon: Hamborg [ˈhaˑmbɔːx]) is the second-largest city in Germany and the seventh-largest city in the European Union. The city is home to over 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighbouring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 4.3 million inhabitants. Situated on the river Elbe, the port of Hamburg is the third-largest port in Europe (after the Port of Rotterdam and the Port of Antwerp) and it is among the twenty largest in the world.