EUROGATE has reported a strong rise in container handling and revenues for the first half of this year. While turnover at the German terminals grew at a slightly slower pace than anticipated, Italian facilities saw a considerable rise, writes Katrin Berkenkopf in Cologne.The group forecasts “extraordinarily good business development” will continue until the end of the year.Overall, Europe’s largest container handling group dealt with 6.9m teu, 15.9% more than a year ago, with 3.75m teu at the terminals in Hamburg (pictured) and Bremerhaven. In Italy the growth rate was 20.5% to 3.05m teu. The remaining 116,000 teu was achieved in Portugal.Turnover grew from E€275m to almost €318m ($412m). Net profits rose from €37.7m to €54.1m.