Controversial Hamburg port deal: "Chinese entry harbors potential for blackmail" - but a compromise is evident

Created: 2022-10-24Updated: 2022-10-24 21:38

By: Sebastian Horsch

China's entry into the port of Hamburg causes astonishment.

Now, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the ministries are said to have given their okay.

Update from October 24, 9:30 p.m .:

According to a media report, the Chinese Cosco group should now be allowed to participate in a container terminal in Hamburg – but only with a smaller share.

According to information from the

, the six ministries that had previously rejected the deal have agreed on a compromise.

Accordingly, the federal government will decide on a so-called partial refusal.

This means that the Chinese state shipping company Cosco cannot take over 35 percent of the Tollerort terminal as planned, but only 24.9 percent.

As a minority shareholder, the group would then not be able to exert any formal influence on the management.

According to information from the

, this compromise is becoming apparent, the departmental vote is still ongoing.

In government circles there was talk of an “emergency solution”.

The digital media house Table.Media had previously reported on such a possible compromise.

Cosco's entry into the container terminal in the port of Hamburg: All six ministries involved are said to be against it

First report from October 21:

Hamburg – No sooner has the anger about the continued operation of the last nuclear power plants been settled than the next storm is brewing over the traffic light coalition.

There are disagreements between the Chancellery and several ministries about the approval of an already agreed Chinese entry into a container terminal in the port of Hamburg.

"According to information from NDR and WDR, all six ministries that are technically involved in the investment review have rejected the deal," the broadcasters reported on Thursday.

A ship drives past the cranes and container ships in the port of Hamburg at the HHLA terminal.

© Georg Wendt/dpa

But Prime Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) - from 2011 to 2018 First Mayor of Hamburg - apparently still wants to push through the deal.

"According to the research, however, the Chancellery is pushing for the entry to take place."

The Chinese Cosco group has had its ships moored at the CTT for decades

The background to this is an agreement concluded in September 2021 between the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA and the Chinese terminal operator Cosco on a 35 percent stake for the Chinese in the Hamburg HHLA terminal in Tollerort (CTT).

China is by far the most important trading partner in Europe's third largest seaport.

The Chinese Cosco Group, which also operates one of the world's largest container shipping companies, has had its ships moored at the CTT for decades.

CTT with four berths and 14 container gantries is one of three container terminals operated by HHLA in the Port of Hamburg.

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In return, Cosco wants to concentrate its cargo flows in the Hanseatic city, CTT – and thus Hamburg – is to become a preferred transhipment point in Europe.

However, because it is a matter of critical infrastructure, Robert Habeck's (Greens) Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is in charge, has already registered the issue for final rejection in the Federal Cabinet, according to WDR and NDR.

It is therefore worrying that the planned participation could create a "potential for blackmail".

The interior, defense, transport and finance ministries as well as the foreign office are against the deal – just like the EU Commission, apparently.

Dealing with China is currently one of the most difficult future issues

But instead of putting the issue on the cabinet's agenda, the chancellery has ordered a search for a compromise so that the deal can still be approved, according to the report.

Dealing with China is currently one of the most difficult future issues.

On the one hand, the country is already one of the most important trading partners of Germany and the EU.

On the other hand, security authorities see a greater long-term danger in the emerging world power than in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

"Russia is the storm, China is climate change," says Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

And Rolf Langhammer from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy points out: "The long-term strategy of the Chinese could of course be to seize control of the entire supply chain, both digital and maritime, in Europe."

Concern is growing among Scholz's coalition partners.

Because the state-controlled company Cosco should not only receive a purely financial participation, but also provide a managing director and have a say in decisions.

And since China is already the port's most important customer, the planned participation in the container terminal could create a "potential for blackmail".

According to the report, time is of the essence.

"If the federal cabinet does not make a decision and no longer agrees to an extension of the deadline, the deal would come about automatically according to the law," write NDR and WDR.

According to the current status, that would be the case at the end of October.

Scholz wants to travel to Beijing in early November to meet China's ruler Xi Jinping.

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