Axel Plass, the chief executive of Konrad Zippel, had been set to remain in charge of the company while retaining a 20% stake under COSCO’s proposed purchase. Zippel operates from Hamburg, moving containers between seaports and inland destinations by truck, rail and inland waterway. It runs about 200 trucks and handled about 205,000 TEU from Hamburg and Bremerhaven in 2024.
COSCO, a Chinese state-owned shipping company, planned to acquire the other 80% of Zippel. The German Federal Cartel Office approved the transaction in February after considering its effect on competition.
That clearance did not settle the matter. The government reviewed the acquisition in recent months under Germany’s foreign-investment rules, including Zippel’s software systems and the data it handles. Reports emerged last week that COSCO was unlikely to secure government approval.
The Economy Ministry said it would issue a formal order blocking the proposed purchase after Cabinet discussion. The German government has now definitively blocked the acquisition on national-security grounds.
Berlin’s concern centred on Zippel’s logistics work for the defence sector and NATO. It fears that the deal would increase Germany’s strategic dependence on China. The ministry said the purchase would have deepened dependencies and jeopardised supply-chain resilience in Germany and the EU.
A government memo said further expansion by COSCO into Germany’s logistics network could create strategic dependencies that might be exploited during periods of political tension. Security officials have also warned that individual Chinese investments could, together, increase Beijing’s influence over critical European logistics networks.
Germany’s investment-screening rules allow the government to restrict or prohibit foreign takeovers when they are judged a sufficiently serious threat to public order or national security. The government said Germany remains open to foreign investment.
The decision follows COSCO’s acquisition of a 24.99% stake in HHLA’s Tollerort container terminal in 2023. COSCO had originally sought a larger holding in that terminal. COSCO ranks among the world’s largest shipping companies by cargo volume.
Comments (0)