CHINA's Cosco Shipping Ports has acquired a 35 per cent share of HHLA's Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT) in Hamburg, Germany, which the Chinese port operator plans to position as a strategic North Europe transshipment point.
The cargo flows will be concentrated at CTT's four berths, which will function as Cosco's "preferred hub" in Europe, HHLA said in a statement. Terms were not disclosed, reports IHS Media.
"The maritime world is currently facing intense changes. Long-term, trusting customer relationships - such as the ones HHLA has tended to for 40 years in trade with China - are that much more important now," Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of HHLA's executive board, said in the statement.
The minority stake is the eighth port investment in Europe by the terminal-handling arm of state-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings. The other investments include control of Piraeus port in Greece, where it plans to increase its stake in the Piraeus Port Authority from 51 percent to 67 percent, plus interests in Belgium's Antwerp Terminal, Rotterdam's Euromax Terminal, CSP Zeebrugge, and Spain's Bilbao and Valencia terminals.
Cosco Shipping is a customer of CTT, with two Asia services, a Mediterranean service, and a Baltic feeder service handled at the terminal. HHLA noted that CTT would continue to be open to all shipping lines.
China is by far Hamburg's largest trading partner, with the 1.3 million TEU handled in the first half of 2021, representing a 14.2 percentage point increase year over year. The total throughput of Hamburg in the first six months reached 4.3 million TEU, a 5.5 percentage point increase on 2020.
With the first stage of the Elbe River widening and deepening project completed, there is improved access for mega-ships and their huge call sizes that can exceed 10,000 TEU per visit.
"Even for the extremely large container ships of the mega-max class, offering slot capacities of between 18,000 and 24,000 TEU, the Port of Hamburg is now more readily accessible," Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, said in a statement.
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