Hamburg Elbe dredging plan needs improvement, court says

By Reinhard Becker LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) - Plans to dredge the river Elbe in Hamburg must be improved before a stop order on the work is lifted, a German court ruled on Thursday, raising the risk of more delay to work to deepen Germany's biggest port and open it up to new container ships. Following the ruling from Germany's top administrative court that authorities must do more to protect the river's maritime environment, shares in Hamburg port terminal operator HHLA were down 11.5 percent at 1215 GMT. The Hamburg city government said it was pleased the court had in principle accepted that dredging can take place.