General Information

Located in the south-western part of the Baltic Sea region, Lübeck Ports take the role of a transshipment hub in the area, and with their dense network of the liner, services act as a central turntable for the traffic between the traditional economic metropolis in West/Central Europe and the fast developing BSR countries.

Thanks to the hinterland connections, coming cargo has many possible ways to reach its destination: the three-lane A1 motorway in the direction of Hamburg connects Lübeck with the main economic centers of Europe. The rail network offers high efficiency both in carload and combined traffic. In addition, the Elbe-Lübeck-Canal provides a link to the European inland waterways network.

In the Ports of Lübeck, the total turnover in 2014 amounted to 26.4 mln tn and over half of it (15.6 mln tn) was ro-ro cargo – showing where Lübeck’s real strength lies. At the same time, this Hanseatic City is among Europe’s most busy ferry destinations. In 2013 around 397,145 passengers used ferry connections to/from the port to enjoy this UNESCO World Heritage Old Town, full of narrow lanes and streets among merchants’ houses.

The strategy of the biggest operator, Lübecker Hafen-Gesellschaft, to focus more on intermodal transport paid off in 2014 with Baltic Rail Gate GmbH, operator of the Lübeck-Skandinavienkai intermodal terminal, handling around 88,200 units, signifying a 35% rise over the previous year.
Lübeck also offers all advantages of a logistics center, with the highest level of quality and know-how, especially concerning forest products such as paper and pulp, and thanks to that have become the largest transshipment and distribution center for the Swedish and Finnish paper industry in Europe.