GERMAN SEAPORTS IN A PERIOD OF RESTRUCTURING

German seaports are in a phase of far‐reaching structural change. Increasing globalisation of the economy has led to growing international trade volume and a corresponding increase in transport streams. Economic changes are particularly marked in the Baltic region which affects, above all, the German Baltic seaports. The two large container ports of Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven are primarily faced with economic and technical‐organisational changes in intercontinental container transport. Restructuring of the ports is currently governed by an adjustment of port infrastructures to the changed requirements of transport and services, and an extension of hinterland relations. Changes in the institutional and financial structures of German ports are likely in view of the chronic crisis situations of public budgets and the attempts of the European Commission to apply the principle of spreading costs fairly to all European ports, on the basis of standardised cost recording and accounting. The introduction of containers resulted in spiralling labour productivity, with a consequent loss in jobs in the operative core area of the port economy. In view of this forced logistic structural change ports become ‘container floodgates’, a ‘logistic channel’ through which cargo passes. Most port regions are attempting to counteract the job decline in the operative function sector carried out by the seaport through developing the services offered towards “value‐added logistics”. The functional changes of ports modify economic linkages of ports and regions. The immediate linkages of ports and sea‐oriented industries are decreasing and differentiated economic and social networks are emerging in the shape of transport and logistic service centres, although their interlinked relations are no longer one‐sidedly port‐based.