BERLIN — The German government intends to block Chinese state-owned shipping giant Cosco from buying an 80% stake in Hamburg logistics firm Zippel over national-security concerns, Handelsblatt reported Tuesday, citing a government memo obtained by the newspaper, Reuters reported.
Zippel specializes in moving containers between seaports and inland destinations. According to Reuters’ summary of the Handelsblatt account, the memo — marked for official use only — warned that strategic dependencies created by the deal could be used as leverage during political upheavals. European governments have grown more wary of Chinese state-linked investments in logistics and transport infrastructure, fearing access to sensitive supply-chain data and leverage over critical routes.
Germany’s antitrust authority cleared the transaction in February, noting that national-security considerations fell outside its remit. In a June interview with industry publication DVV cited by Reuters, Zippel managing director Axel Plass said the economy ministry’s investment review focused in part on the company’s software systems and whether it handled sensitive data.
Neither the German economy ministry nor Zippel immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment. A Germany-based Cosco spokesperson said the company could not comment until it received a final decision from Berlin.
The episode follows Cosco’s minority stake in a Hamburg port container terminal, approved by a previous German government in 2023 despite sharp coalition disagreement. Security hawks across Europe have argued that port and hinterland logistics nodes are dual-use assets relevant to military mobility and NATO supply chains — themes echoed in German media accounts of the Zippel file describing “considerable security concerns.”
For global trade watchers, a formal German veto would signal tighter screening of Chinese capital in European logistics even as Brussels presses Beijing on broader trade imbalances. No final cabinet decision had been publicly posted at the time of the Reuters dispatch.
Based on Reuters reporting of Handelsblatt’s account of a German government memo. Berlin’s final legal act should be confirmed when ministries publish it.