Ship departures from the Port of Hamburg, Germany
Ship departures from the Port of Hamburg, Germany stood at 65 Ships on Oct 18, 2026, according to Deutsche Bundesbank, Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis) and Kiel Institute for the World Economy. It is one of the indicators in the High-frequency activity indicators table (Value · Daily), with a complete series running from Jan 8, 2023 to Oct 18, 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the High-frequency activity indicators table
| Indicator | 18-10-2026 | 11-10-2026 | 04-10-2026 | 27-09-2026 | 20-09-2026 | 13-09-2026 | 06-09-2026 | 30-08-2026 | 23-08-2026 | 16-08-2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship departures from Hamburg and Bremerhaven (Kiel Trade Indicator) | |||||||||||
| Hamburg: ship departures | 65 | 63 | 67 | 65 | 61 | 70 | 48 | 68 | 63 | 64 | |
| Bremerhaven: ship departures | 33 | 33 | 37 | 40 | 30 | 41 | 23 | 36 | 34 | 34 |
Understanding ship departures from the Port of Hamburg, Germany
The daily physical count of maritime vessels leaving the Hamburg commercial harbour, sourced directly from the Kiel Trade Indicator dataset. This high-frequency metric tracks outbound shipping traffic, serving as a real-time proxy for export logistics and international trade volumes. It isolates activity specific to this particular maritime infrastructure, distinct from other regional ports or broader aggregate transport measures. The strict calculation of physical hull movements provides an immediate gauge of outbound supply chain fluidity before the official customs declarations and monetary export values are published.
Interpreting daily harbour movements requires accounting for the inherent lumpiness of global maritime scheduling. A single massive container vessel and a smaller feeder ship both register as individual departures in this raw count, meaning the metric tracks the frequency of voyages rather than the precise tonnage or value of the exported cargo. Period-on-period comparisons are subject to severe distortion from temporary weather disruptions, tidal anomalies, or localized dockworker strikes. Analysts generally smooth these daily departure figures into longer rolling averages to identify genuine shifts in the underlying export cycle, filtering out the daily logistical noise common to deep-water port operations.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the metric differentiate between massive deep-sea container ships and smaller regional vessels?
- The baseline measurement registers the pure count of departing vessels regardless of their individual cargo capacity or overall tonnage.
- Are inland waterway barges travelling down the river networks included in the departure figures?
- The metric focuses on seagoing maritime traffic leaving the port infrastructure for international trade routes, excluding internal river transport.
- Why might the physical departure count diverge from official monthly export revenue?
- The metric tracks the number of sailings rather than the monetary value of the goods loaded, meaning price fluctuations and cargo density are not captured.