HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - The Budget Committee of the Hamburg Parliament is holding a public hearing on Thursday (2 p.m.) on the controversial acquisition of the world's largest shipping company MSC by the port logistics company HHLA. All members of the public will be able to speak at the hearing, as announced by the city council. This will be followed by a Senate inquiry and the non-public part of the Budget Committee meeting. Once all points have been dealt with, the committee could then make its recommendation to the Bürgerschaft, which intends to discuss and decide on the entry in the last meeting before the summer break on July 10. Prior to this, the Committee for Public Enterprises and the Economic Committee had already waved the red-green Senate's plan through.

The Senate wants to bring the Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) on board at Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) in order to stabilize container handling. The city and the company, which is owned by the Italian shipping family Aponte, are to run HHLA as a joint venture in future, with the city holding a majority stake of 50.1 percent. To date, the city has owned around 70 percent of HHLA, which is listed on the stock exchange.

In return, the world's largest shipping company MSC wants to build its German headquarters in Hamburg, increase the volume of cargo in the port from 2025 and, according to the press release, increase it to one million standard containers (TEU) per year by 2031. MSC and the city also want to increase HHLA's equity by 450 million euros. The port has recently suffered setbacks. Last year, the handling of seaborne cargo fell by 4.7 percent compared to 2022 to 114.3 million tons - the lowest figure since 2009.

There have been considerable protests against the business, for example from port workers across the company, the HHLA workforce, the HHLA works councils and the Verdi trade union, who are concerned about jobs and co-determination rights. However, a number of experts have also expressed skepticism in two expert hearings, warning, for example, of a loss of control by the city. In politics, the CDU and the Left Party are particularly opposed to the deal./klm/DP/ngu