Dr. Wagener presents a study on the employment effects of shipping on the ‘Elbschifffahrtstag’ in Hamburg

On May 27, 2016, Norbert Wagener par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the Chamber of Commerce of Hamburg on the oc­ca­si­on of the Elbschifffahrt day and pre­sen­ted the stu­dy of em­ploy­ment im­pacts of the com­mer­cial Elbe ship­ping in­dus­try de­ve­lo­ped by HTC and W&H on be­half of the sta­te of Saxony-Anhalt.

After an in­tro­duc­tion by Ms Daniela Düring as the re­pre­sen­ta­ti­ve of the cli­ent, Dr. Wagener clai­med that a to­tal of 16,000 jobs de­pend on the Elbe ship­ping. This cor­re­sponds ap­pro­xi­m­ate­ly to the num­ber of em­ployees of the au­to­mo­ti­ve ma­nu­fac­tu­rer Adam Opel AG or the th­ree-fold num­ber of em­ployees em­ploy­ed world­wi­de by the HHLA Group. The me­a­su­res on­ly con­cern the ac­tu­al si­tua­ti­on in Germany, that is, wi­t­hout the Czech Republic and wi­t­hout ta­king in­to ac­count the po­ten­ti­al for im­pro­ved ship­ping con­di­ti­ons. The se­cu­ring of a mi­ni­mum dri­ving depth of 1.60 to 345 days per year is ur­gen­tly re­qui­red by the tran­ship­ping eco­no­my as an es­sen­ti­al pre­re­qui­si­te for en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly and cost-ef­fec­ti­ve in­land wa­ter­way trans­ports. Trimodality and the op­ti­on of using in­land wa­ter­ways are cru­cial com­pe­ti­ti­ve and lo­ca­ti­on fac­tors for the eco­no­my in the Elbe region.

Dr. Wagener pres­ents the HTC/W&H — Study (Picture: C. Mencl)

In the event of a con­ti­nua­tion of the rest­ric­tions on the ship­ping of the Elbe, jobs are par­ti­cu­lar­ly vul­nerable in the me­di­um term in the are­as of ma­chi­nery and plant con­s­truc­tion (hea­vy load and lar­ge vo­lu­me goods). In re­gards to the ship­ping in­dus­try, which uses the Elbe ship­ping, the com­pe­ti­ti­ve di­s­ad­van­ta­ges me­an a loss of mar­ket and growth op­por­tu­ni­ties wi­th ne­ga­ti­ve em­ploy­ment ef­fects. In the long term, the di­s­ad­van­ta­ges of the lo­ca­ti­on will al­so have a ne­ga­ti­ve ef­fect on new in­vest­ments. This is not an ab­rupt, but ra­ther a si­lent, cree­ping pro­cess which wea­k­ens the eco­no­mic power of the re­gi­ons con­cer­ned in the long term. At the con­fe­rence, not on­ly the need for ac­tion was ma­de clear, but al­so de­mands and so­lu­ti­ons we­re discussed.

The lec­tu­re and fur­ther in­for­ma­ti­on can be found on the web­site http://elbeallianz.org.

Dr. Wagener pres­ents a stu­dy on the em­ploy­ment ef­fects of ship­ping on the ‘Elbschifffahrtstag’ in Hamburg
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