Genoa – The Parliament of the City-State of Hamburg voted in favor of MSC’s entry into the shareholding structure of the terminal operator HHLAwith 72 votes against 33. The red-green majority in charge of the city were in favor, while the CDU, Linke and AfD were against. The unions, who were present en masse in the public sector at the time of the vote, were also against the operation. The agreement will now have to be approved by the European Commission.
The proposal was presented by the Geneva shipping company in September 2023. The city of Hamburg has so far owned 69 percent of HHLA, while the rest was on the market. MSC has collected part of the shares on the market and the Senate vote concerns the sale of approximately 19 percent of the public shares. In this way, HHLA will be divided 50.1 percent to the city of Hamburg and 49.9 percent to MSCwhich will be entrusted with management for 40 years and which promises to increase its traffic at the port to one million TEU by 2030 and to open a regional office here.
By joining Hhla, MSC will also have access to the control room of Metrans, a jewel of rail transport that according to those who opposed the sale would be one of the main objectives of the operation. However, Hhla’s core business is container terminals: controls three of the four present in the port of Hamburg. Hhla is also present in Italy in the Trieste Logistics Platform.
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