Global infrastructure, local alliances: a seaport at crossroads

Keywords: Infrastructure, seaports, metropolitan regions, urban policy and planning
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

‘Global infrastructure’ is understood here as the technical, institutional and locational means by which city regions are connected to the global flows of commodities and the associated coordination of supply chains. In this context, the paper explores the governance conditions and practices at the port of Hamburg, Germany. The port’s position, which has risen to record levels after German unification and due to emerging trade with East Asia, has weakened in recent years compared to its main competitors. In order to maintain Hamburg’s role as a global maritime hub, port and city pursued a combined approach of infrastructure expansion and the establishment of dense maritime networks. It included the temporary bailout of the Hamburg-based shipping line Hapag-Lloyd a decade plus ago, and more recently the merger of the two biggest terminal operators (Hamburg’s HHLA and Bremen’s Eurogate), which was eventually abandoned.
Much disputed in the public is the recent decision made by the Federal Chancellor (and former First Mayor of Hamburg) to offer a minority share in the port’s Tollerort terminal to Chinese COSCO shipping line, reflecting rising concerns about giving authoritarian states access to ‘critical’ infrastructure. However, what remains hidden behind this (geo-)political controversy are major geographical constraints and city-regional policy conflicts. These issues raise doubts as to whether the port’s trajectories of the past can be revitalized at all. After decades of practicing a politics of ‘growth machine’ and ‘infrastructure alliance’, the momentum is actually there for looking at alternative futures for port, city and region.