Hamburg in Profile

Industry in Hamburg is broadly diversified. There is hardly any other location in Europe where primary industries (e.g. copper, steel and aluminium) are concentrated to such an extent as in the Hanseatic City. In addition, Hamburg is world-wide the third largest site of the civil aircraft industry, the most employment intensive company in Hamburg being Airbus, with Lufthansa Technik ranking third in this listing. The Beiersdorf AG, the only DAX company from Hamburg, belongs to the industrial sector. The sector of renewable energies also plays an important role. In recent years Hamburg has developed into the wind energy capital of northern  Germany.

Companies and private individuals are increasingly taking advantage of the services provided by the Hamburg services sector. These services include office services, educational services, corporate and household services, event services, security services or private employment agencies, to mention just a few examples. The Hamburg service landscape is not only widelyvaried and highly heterogeneous, but also extremely convincing with its high-tech products that are put to smart use. The Hamburg services sector is the ideal hub for both innovative companies, as well as traditional companies that wish to realign themselves.

Foreign trade professionals are continually developing new markets for their German and international clients, contributing to a larger inland product diversity. Export dealers ensure that products from all over the world reach foreign markets, being available there for industry and consumers. Furthermore, they offer services related to export, such as financing, insurance, customer service and market development. Import dealers ensure that German and European industries are supplied with raw materials and semi-finished products from all over the world and that the consumers in Germany and Europe can purchase products from every continent. The importers also offer specific services, e.g. labelling and packaging. Imports to the state of Hamburg have tripled in the last 25 years, from 23.6 billion euro in 1990 to 69.4 billion euro in 2015. During the same period exports from the state of Hamburg have even attained a ninefold growth (from 6.2 billion to 56.5 billion euro). Both for imports and exports, Europe is by far the most important region for Hamburg’s foreign trade.

The predominantly service-oriented companies in the business-to-business trade function as intermediaries between the various economic players. Due to the international traffic-related role of Hamburg as a hub, the acquisition and sales market for wholesale and trade agencies also extends well beyond North Germany. With more than 1,000 retail stores (325,600 square metres sales area) and an annual turnover of around 1.9 billion euro, the city centre of Hamburg is the most diverse and at the same time economically important retail location in Northern Germany. Furthermore, the Hanseatic City is the control centre of internationally active retail companies. The city is a hotbed for many spin-offs of innovative retail concepts and young designers that offer a selection of high-quality goods in inner-city locations such as St. Georg, the Karolinenviertel or Eppendorf. In addition, shopping centres, such as Alstertal or the Elbe shopping centre are characteristic for the shopping landscape.In recent years, the significance of e-commerce has experienced a rapid development. Based on its competence in the mail order business, Hamburg has become an important location for online trade in Germany. The Hamburg e-commerce landscape reflects a broad spectrum of distribution structures in the internet. The number of service providers is growing in the marketing and logistics sectors, as a result of this dynamic development.

Hamburg benefits from its favourable geographical location – having both the North and the Baltic Seas at its fingertips. Also thanks to excellent hinterland connections, the city has become a hub for trade and traffic from Northern Europe, Asia and the Baltic region. Hamburg profited in a special way from globalization, the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the EU expansion to the east.
The Port of Hamburg is Germany’s largest seaport and one of the most important cargo-handling places in the world. Freight handling has almost doubled in the last 20 years, reaching 138.3 million tons in 2015. In 2015, Hamburg’s top five trading partners in container shipping were the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Singapore, Russia, Finland and the USA. Hamburg Airport - Helmut Schmidt is the oldest German commercial airport that is still resides at its original location. It was founded in 1911 and in 2015 15.6 million passengers used Germany’s fifth largest airport (60 airlines to 115 destinations in 2016), which shows that the number of passengers has doubled in the last 25 years.

For more than 50 years, the oldest transport association in the world, the Hamburg Transport Association HVV has transported their passengers comfortably and reliably to their destinations in Hamburg and the surrounding areas. The same applies to the local taxi trade, which is also an indispensable part of public transport. Anyone who wants to get to know Hamburg can enjoy a city tour or a guided tour with Hamburg’s experienced tour guides. Launches and passenger ships are a special, maritime way of exploring the port, the historic warehouse district and the Alster. Other increasingly popular sectors of passenger transport are long distance coach services from the central bus station and cruise holidays for which Hamburg currently operates three terminals. In 2015, a total of 153 cruise ships with 519,453 passengers entered the port of the Hanseatic City.

Hamburg belongs to the top three of the most popular city destinations in Germany, after Berlin and Munich. The Hanseatic City ranks eleventh place in Europe. The number of overnight stays in the Hamburg accommodation sector has more than tripled in the last 25 years. In 2015, the city on the Alster and Elbe registered 12.6 million overnight stays; a quarter of these were attributable to foreign guests. The average stay was 2.01 nights per guest. Hamburg has a wide-ranging culture scene, examples being the State Opera, two State Theatres and numerous private theatres, the Hamburg Ballet, as well as various public and private museums. Hamburg is the key location for musicals in Germany. The live music clubs in the vicinity of the Reeperbahn are legendary, where, among others, the Beatles launched their career, as are the well-known festivals. Outstanding among Hamburg’s attractions are the port of Hamburg, the old warehouse district and the Kontorhaus Quarter (awarded Unesco World Heritage status), the Michel, the HafenCity with the Elbphilharmonic concert hall (opening in 2017) or the Harbour Anniversary, the greatest Harbour Festival in the world, with more than one million annual visitors. In 2016, the Miniatur Wunderland (the largest model railway in the world) was the most popular German magnet for visitors from foreign countries. The maritime flair, the traditional architecture and the spacious green areas are further great attractions for tourists.In 2011, Hamburg was nominated the European Green Capital. According to the Arcadis study “Sustainable Cities Index 2016”, Hamburg is one of the most sustainable cities in the world (ranking 8th of a total of 100 listed cities, even ranking 3rd in the subcategory “People”).

As an international trade centre, the Hanseatic City has also become the hub for the dissemination and processing of information. Moreover, communication is one of the major strengths of Hamburg, the city of the media. Many of the most famous national and international media brands are represented among the creative companies. Hamburg is considered to be the press and agency stronghold. From renowned political magazines to tabloid newspapers that are available at the newsstands and bookstores in Germany, publications from Hamburg are well represented. Award-winning campaigns and designs from the Hanseatic City can regularly be found in the advertising and PR industries. The media industry in Hamburg also includes a fertile entrepreneurial environment in the area of e-business and games that is unique for Germany.Hamburg is the location, German headquarters or major seat of various well-known IT companies from different segments of the information technology industry. It is simultaneously the location of a large proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises. A vibrant start-up activity with a high number of companies founded and above average odds of remaining competitive on the market in the medium term, as well as a high degree of satisfaction with the framework conditions, complete the picture of Hamburg as a dynamic IT hub.

The financial centre of Hamburg is both rich in tradition and differentiated. It is the oldest, but also the most diverse German stock exchange location with four exchanges. In addition to the stock exchange, there is also the grain exchange, the only German insurance exchange and the general exchange used by real estate agents. A special feature of the financial centre of Hamburg is the close connection between financial institutions and the real economy. The range of banking, insurance and financial services depends closely on the needs of the other industries and enables them to realize businesses, projects and investments. As a result of specialized financial services, a strong portfolio of insurance and financial intermediaries, investment and management companies, as well as innovative FinTechs, an excellent mix of industries has formed which lends the financial centre of Hamburg its stable dynamics. “Hanseatic, reliable, innovative” - this slogan coined by the private industry initiative Finanzplatz Hamburg e. V. captures the brand essence of the site. The Finanzplatz Hamburg e. V. is committed to intensifying the close interconnection between the financial industry and other industries, but also politics and administration, as well as education and science.

The real estate industry shapes the urban landscape of Hamburg. Hamburg is one of the leading property locations in Germany. The increasing growth of the economy and the population provides the real estate industry with positive impulses. Estate agents, property administrators, lessors and real estate vendors belong, in the strict sense, to the circle of the real estate industry, with project developers, building contractors, as well as planning companies completing the services on offer. Commercial and mortgage banks and building societies are also included.

Hamburg has developed into the north German consulting stronghold. The wide-ranging consulting economy not only includes traditional corporate and management consultants but also market and opinion research companies, PR consultants, merger & acquisition consultants, as well as chartered accountants and HR consultants. As the Hanseatic City is an important location for many industries, it is just as attractive for universal established consulting firms, as well as for consultants, specializing in selected industries.

The core area of the healthcare economy, the so-called first healthcare market, comprises the sector “classical” healthcare whose services are mainly financed by the social health insurance companies. The Hamburg healthcare economy is a growth industry and employment motor of the Hanseatic City: almost every seventh Hamburg resident works in this industry. And about every eleventh euro is generated by healthcare. In recent years, the second healthcare market with privately financed products and services has developed
particularly dynamically. Due to technological developments and demographic change, health awareness is steadily increasing. Healthcare providers, in particular, benefit from this trend.