Well then: The Chinese state-owned company Cosco is allowed to take over shares in the container terminal Tollerort in the port of Hamburg – although the terminal has now been classified as critical infrastructure.
After months of dispute, the Chinese state-owned company Cosco can now take over 24.9 percent of a Hamburg container terminal. Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) announced that the German government had decided to release the minority stake held by the Chinese company Cosco Shipping Ports Limited (CSPL) in Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT). “All questions relating to the investment review process could be clarified together in intensive, constructive discussions,” stressed HHLA.
According to its own statements, the federal government confirmed in a letter “that the revised purchase contracts are in line with the conditions of the partial ban”. HHLA can now expand the terminal into a preferred transhipment point for long-standing HHLA customer Cosco, where cargo flows between Asia and Europe are concentrated, HHLA explained.
China is the Port of Hamburg’s largest trading partner
According to HHLA, China is currently the largest trading partner of Germany and the Port of Hamburg. Around 30 percent of the goods handled in the port of Hamburg come from or go to China. The minority holding of CSPL secures employment and strengthens Hamburg’s national and international importance as a logistics location as well as the industrial nation of Germany. A total of around 1.35 million jobs in Germany depend on the ports.
Cosco originally wanted to take over 35 percent of the operating company of Container Terminal Tollerort GmbH. However, a fierce political dispute broke out in the federal government over the question of whether Chinese participation should be allowed. Last October, the cabinet decided on a so-called partial ban, which only allows the acquisition of less than 25 percent of Cosco shares. Any further acquisition above this threshold was prohibited.
Scholz had supported participation
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had spoken out in favor of the acquisition. However, there had been strong headwinds within the federal government. The Foreign Ministry and other departments had expressed serious concerns about the cabinet’s decision. The acquisition disproportionately expands China’s strategic influence on the German and European transport infrastructure and Germany’s dependence on China, according to a statement in the minutes at the end of October.
Most recently, in mid-April, the Federal Ministry of Economics announced that it wanted to review the planned transaction again after the container port had been classified as a critical infrastructure by the Federal Office for Information Security.