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Lübeck’s share sights
01 May 2007
City hopes to boost future port prospects with a majority share sell off to an experienced port operator, as Tom Todd reports
Germany’s biggest Baltic seaport Lübeck- Travemünde has a similar strategic problem to Hamburg: how to raise at least €110m ($147.7m) to fund expansion projects up to about 2015 and at the same time stiffen the port’s investment backbone.With the decision now not far off,the answer is also similar:sell off a chunk of the shares in the largely City-owned main port operating concern.
The majority party in the Lübeck City Council wants to find a “strategic partner”to buy 90% of the Lübecker Hafen Gesellschaft (LHG), which handles nearly all the ports cargo.
City mayor Bernd Saxe has said a sale of LHG shares “would improve the port’s ability to compete,guarantee the financing of planned investments and the long-term operation of port services, as well as secure jobs”.
Noting that the Baltic offers Lübeck enormous chances for further growth, city officials have stressed they are not looking for someone seeking a quick return on investment, but one who has the necessary knowhow in port operations and logistics and could carry out a long-term growth-oriented company strategy.
Unions are against selling the shares, just as they are in Hamburg (Dizzying Demands – Page 28),and so is the opposition party in the Lübeck City Council, charging the plan has more to do with profit than with investment. The opposition also wants to see a solid strategic partner bolstering LHG on the road ahead Lübeck, it appears, can now well afford to lean back, ease off and start enjoying the fruits of intensive strategic infrastructural development over the past few years.
The port is one of the Baltic’s busiest ro-ro ferry and cruise ship ports,handling 792,000 trailers/swap bodies last year, but other main sectors, like vehicle handling up 23% in 2006 to 232,000 cars, are also growing strongly. Lübeck is also making efforts to increase sluggish but slowly improving container handling, particularly with hinterland Hamburg in mind.
The Skandinavienkai is the hub of much of the port’s activity, handling 20m tonnes of the record 30.5m tonnes recorded last year.That was 11.8% more than in 2005 and the growth is due to continue to 35m-40m tonnes by 2015.
Expansion of the Skandinavienkai ro-ro and ferry site is largely completed with 13.3 hectares now added to the original 50 and a second expansion of 15.7 hectares possible. A new 22-lane gate has been in operation since January, moving traffic into and out of the Skandinavienkai closer to the main highways.
