Hapag-Lloyd is investing in the JadeWeserPort deepwater port in Wilhelmshaven just days after Cosco acquired a stake in a rival container port in Hamburg. The company is taking over 30% of the container terminal and 50% of the shares of the rail terminal at JadeWeserPort.
Hapag-Lloyd took over the shares from Maersk’s APM Terminals, but it is not known how much the Hamburg-based liner paid. The remaining 70% is to remain with the Bremen terminal operator, Eurogate.
Subject to approval by the antitrust authorities, contract closing is expected within a few months.
JadeWeserPort is located at the German Bight in Wilhelmshaven, on the North Sea coast of Germany. Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven are competitors in container handling and so far, Hapag-Lloyd has mainly handled containers in Hamburg.
A Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson said the company will not speculate about any possible impacts for Hamburg or Wilhelmshaven.
Last week, rival Cosco, through its terminal operator, Cosco Shipping Ports Limited (CSPL), struck a deal with Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA) to acquire a 35% stake in HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT), marking the first investment by a non-German operator into the country’s main container port.
JadeWeserPort has a handling capacity of 2.7 million TEU. Since it was opened in 2012, the port has never managed more than a million TEU, mostly significantly less. Maersk is the largest container shipping company in the world, Hapag-Lloyd ranks fifth by a large margin. So the question arises whether the takeover of Maersk shares by Hapag-Lloyd will not weaken the port any further.