In recent years, international investors have focused more and more on acquiring, owning and renting port facilities and cargo and goods terminals in the coastal areas of the world.
The research of a consulting and economic evaluation company called PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) indicates that since 2015, the buying and selling of facilities, infrastructures and port terminals has increased greatly. According to PwC research, this purchase and sale has reached 100 billion US dollars. In 2023, of course, the amount of transactions in this field with the figure of 4.2 billion dollars is significantly less than the previous two years with figures equal to 15.3 and 11.7, but the number of transactions last year, which reached 17, is still The high level of buying and selling activities in this field is telling. Another noteworthy result of this research is the transfer of attention to the ports of Asia and the Pacific. The research says: “Between the years 2015 and 2023, 184 cases of transactions in the scope of port facilities and structures have been carried out on the ports of Asia and the Pacific. The importance of finding several ports in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is also a part of this trend; A process that seems to have left the northern border of the Persian Gulf (Iran) more or less behind due to the crisis in its international relations. According to the performance index of world ports published by the World Bank and gmicpp, four ports in the south of the Persian Gulf were among the five ports with the best performance in 2021 at the global level. Iran’s share of international trade has been declining over the past 50 years and has reached 24 percent in 2022 from 1.1 percent in 1974. This is despite the fact that the UAE alone as a commercial hub in 2022 has the equivalent of 1024 billion dollars in trade with the world.At the same time, the population of the five southern countries of the Persian Gulf and the coastal provinces of Saudi Arabia has increased between seven and 33 times in the last 50 years and has reached about 33 million people. At the same time, Iranian coasts are very backward and the population of coastal cities does not exceed about 3.5 million people. A new research report continues to focus on the increasing importance and weight of African ports in the international supply chain: “There is a heavy competition in this region for the acquisition and lease of port facilities and structures.” While China continues the “New Silk Road” project as well as strategic investments in Africa, the European Union has invested in African structures to maintain its position in international competition. According to the website of Germany’s first television network (Tagschau), Andre Wortmann, a PwC expert, cited the results of the research and said that “sea routes and routes are changing and moving. Asia and Africa are becoming more important day by day, while the routes Towards Europe, they may lose their importance”. He has warned that in the competition for key infrastructure, the EU must be vigilant, because “priorities and considerations and interests in the maritime transport system are changing and the main players in this field sometimes pursue different interests”. Wortman, however, admits that ports from Europe will continue to be very attractive and important, which shows itself, among other things, in the recent partnership of the large international shipping company MSC in the operational structure of the port of Hamburg in Germany. In this way, the port of Hamburg will be jointly managed by the city of Hamburg as the main shareholder and MSC. Last summer, the effort and desire of a Chinese company called COSCO (COSCO) to acquire a part of the shares of Hamburg port facilities caused a lot of controversy in Germany. At first, Cuzco wanted to buy 35% of the shares of the port’s facilities, but due to the sensitivity and opposition of a number of German ministries, who were concerned about the takeover of key sectors of the economy by foreign countries, especially China, the federal government finally decided to sell 25%. The Hamburg stock agreed to the Chinese company so that the company would not have a heavy weight in the decisions with its votes. Cuzco acquired this 25% stake for 42 million euros. The port of Hamburg is going to become the preferred terminal for the sea transportation of Cuzco and play a central role in the transportation of goods between Asia and Europe. China is currently the largest trading partner of the Port of Hamburg. 30% of the cargo of ships in this port either goes to China or comes from this country.
