Ports and High Tech : Germany

Ports and shipping, international trade connections and products of highest quality manufactured by state-of-the-art industries are the foundations of Bremen’s economic life. The container terminal in Bremerhaven is Europe’s largest container transshipment facility. Every year, more than 10,000 ships link Bremen’s ports with roughly 1,000 ports all over the world, With an annual volume of 830,000 vehicles, Bremerhaven is Europe’s most important automobile transshipment point.

The Free Hanseatic City’s shipyards stand for quality in shipbuilding. Bremen is also one of the centers of the German food, luxury food and beverage industries: Coffee, chocolate, flour, milk products, spices, fish products and beer are the best-known products. Key components for rockets, satellites and the Airbus are developed and built in Bremen, a hub of the aerospace industry. The electrical and electronics industries as well as high-tech industries likewise play a prominent role in the city’s economy. Symbolic of Bremen’s expertise in the field of high technology is the 148-meter-high tower of ihe Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity, in which experiments can be conducted under conditions of weightlessness. The Bremen Securities Exchange - which is over 300 years old -and the commodities exchanges handle trading for all of northwestern Germany.