Since the beginning of October, the Norwegian shipping company UECC has included Cuxhaven in its Baltic Service. In the deep-water port at the Elbe estuary, various imports coming from Russia and also Finland are unloaded and loaded into the European hinterland. In addition, there are regular UECC services from Cuxhaven to the United Kingdom and .
Ongoing efforts at Emden
The port of Emden, also in Germany, remains the third busiest on the continent even though it exclusively handles VW Group volumes. These dropped by 26% in 2020, in line with a number of other finished vehicle-handling ports in Europe.
As elsewhere, identifying, agreeing and establishing effective protective measures for staff was one of the main concerns as the coronavirus hit operations.
“Adjusting the number of operational staff at the beginning of the pandemic and then also at the re-start has been (and is still) an enormous task,” says a spokesperson for VW. “The reason is that, at the beginning of the pandemic there were no reliable short- or medium-term planning figures available, but measures had to be taken, which then only took effect with a time lag. The main task at present is to synchronise the overall requirements of all parties involved under pandemic conditions.”