Insights from TOC Europe 2026 in Hamburg

The Terminal Operating Conference (TOC) in Hamburg, held from May 19 to May 21, provided a forum for engaging discussions, bringing together industry leaders from ports, terminals, logistics service providers, and technology companies to discuss the future of supply chains and maritime logistics.

Great discussions today at Terminal Operating Conference (TOC) in Hamburg, where industry leaders from ports, terminals, logistics providers and technology companies came together to discuss the future of supply chains and maritime logistics.

Our colleague, Johannes Schmidt had the opportunity to present on “Hinterland Connectivity: Key for Competitiveness in the European Market.” 

Our key message from the session: Ports increasingly compete not only through maritime access, cost or terminal productivity, they compete through their entire supply chain networks. Using insights from the ISL European Container Traffic Model, we showed how relatively small improvements in hinterland performance (rail frequency, reliability, inland transport costs, and intermodal services) can create disproportionately large impacts on market capture. Strong rail connectivity can create “virtual proximity”, enabling ports to compete successfully far beyond their natural geographic hinterland. 

The discussion reinforced an important conclusion: future competitiveness will not only be determined at the port gate, but across the entire transport corridor. We would like to thank everyone for the interesting conversations and exchange of ideas!

Feel free to contact our market experts, Sönke Maatsch and Johannes Schmidt, to continue the discussion or learn more about our work and insights.