The German government said that it would allow a Chinese firm to buy a stake in Hamburg port, after the terminal was classed as critical infrastructure. The government controversially gave the go-ahead in October for state-owned Chinese shipping giant Cosco to buy up to a 24.9% stake in Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT) in Hamburg. The green light came despite security concerns over the sale of the infrastructure to Chinese investors, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz resisting calls to ban the sale outright. In April, Berlin said it was reassessing whether to allow the sale to go ahead. But last week the government said the original approval of a sale of less than 25% had not changed. No more details were given about the reasons behind the decision.
Cosco initially sought to purchase a larger 35% stake in the port before a compromise agreement was announced. In November, Germany blocked the sale of two chip makers to Chinese investors because of security concerns around the key technology. Germany has also capped investment guarantees for German companies doing business in China, as Europe’s largest economy looks to reduce its dependence on Beijing, the South China Morning Post reports.
Container Terminal Tollerort is owned by Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA), a German container terminal operator. HHLA and CSPL announced the investment agreement in September 2021. CSPL is a business unit of China COSCO Shipping Corp, China’s largest shipping company by market share and fleet size. China is Germany’s and the Port of Hamburg’s largest trading partner, with around 30% of the goods handled at the port coming from or going to China. CTT is one of three container terminals of HHLA at the Port of Hamburg. It has four berths and more than 10 container gantry cranes. CSPL’s parent company China COSCO Shipping Corp’s mega container vessels with a capacity of 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units have been handled there, according to CSPL. The terminal’s own railway station, which has five tracks, is connected to the hinterland, meaning goods can be moved quickly between CTT and other European destinations. As of 31 March, CSPL operated and managed 367 berths at 37 ports globally, of which 220 were for containers, with an annual handling capacity of about 122 million TEU, the China Daily adds.
