German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's office has pushed to approve China Cosco's bid to buy a 35 percent stake in the Tollerort container terminal at Hamburg, despite opposition from six federal ministries in his own government, German public broadcasters NDR and WDR reported last week. That conflict now appears to have been resolved by negotiating down the size of COSCO's stake, and all six ministries are now said to be in agreement.
If the political approval goes through as reported, and if COSCO is interested in the revised terms, the Chinese state-owned shipping line would be allowed to purchase a 24.9 percent stake in the terminal. By reducing the stake by 10.1 percentage points, the share would be small enough that COSCO would not have direct influence over the terminal's operations.
COSCO is already Tollerort's primary customer, "A rejection of the Chinese would be a disaster not only for the port but for Germany," Hafen Hamburg marketing head Axel Mattern told Reuters last month.