DECRYPTION – Berlin validates the ownership of the shipowner. What rekindle concerns about Chinese influence.
In Berlin
The decision taken on Wednesday October 26 by the German government should satisfy the powerful Chinese leader Xi Jinping who will receive Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing next week. The Council of Ministers, under pressure from the Federal Chancellery and against the advice of six ministries, has indeed given the green light for the world’s third largest shipowner, the Chinese company China Ocean Shipping Company, or Cosco, to be authorized to buy 24.9% of the shares of the company that owns the Tollerort container terminal in the port of Hamburg.
The latter is itself the subsidiary of HHLA, which manages the four major terminals of the leading German port and carries out 40% of its activity with China. With this agreement, the Hamburgers want to offer Cosco privileged access to the port with faster and cheaper landing conditions. In return, the Chinese shipowner, which is under the control of the Chinese state, undertakes to increase its traffic to Hamburg. The practice…
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