Delegation visited the HGK Group in Europe's largest inland port

The members of the Emden Shipping Round Table, led by Manfred de Vries from Autoport Emden GmbH, met with representatives of Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln AG (HGK) at the Duisburg site in Europe's largest inland port. The Emden delegation was welcomed by Dr. Jens-Albert Oppel (COO of the HGK Group), Mr. Steffen Bauer (CEO of HGK Shipping) and Mr. Wolfgang Nowak (Managing Director of Amadeus Schifffahrts- und Speditions GmbH). Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

The HGK Group is one of the leading players in intermodal freight transport and connects the important business locations along the Rhine with the logistics hubs in Europe. It operates container terminals, logistics hubs, rail freight transport and maintains its own fleet of inland waterway vessels with over 350 ships. Its shareholders are the Stadtwerke Köln Group, the City of Cologne and the Rhein-Erft district. The Ruhr region can be reached from Emden via the A31 highway, rail and inland waterway via the Dortmund-Ems Canal. “The Ruhr region is still very interesting for the port of Emden as a source and target market,” says de Vries.

It was particularly important for the people of Emden to highlight the opportunities already available and the potential of the port of Emden resulting from the areas still to be developed. Above all, the people of Emden hope that the contact with Duisburg will deepen the discussions further, that initial collaborations will develop and that the port of Emden will be taken into account in new business and investments by HGK.

At the end of the trip, the Emden and HGK representatives agreed a return visit to Emden to showcase the seaport's range of services and discuss further cooperation. De Vries drew a positive balance after returning to Emden. “I believe that we were able to prove with our broad-based group from Emden in Duisburg that our port is very well suited as a cooperation partner for the Port of Duisburg. Our visit was the basis for a hopefully long-term and close cooperation.” HGK agrees: “We have laid a good foundation for further discussions and the exchange of ideas,” said Wolfgang Nowak from Duisburg-based Amadeus Schifffahrts- und Speditions GmbH, which is part of the HGK Group. The Emden-based company will now define possible cooperation projects and discuss them with HGK.