HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - Hundreds of port workers and sympathizers have protested in Hamburg against the entry of the world's largest shipping company MSC into the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA. On Wednesday, they marched from the headquarters of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG in the Speicherstadt warehouse district to the MSC branch and from there to the economic authority, chanting "Our port, our city, smash the MSC deal" over and over again. The police initially spoke of around 500 participants. In September 2023, around 2,500 people had already taken to the streets against the controversial deal. In November, HHLA employees also walked off the job for a day in protest in a wildcat strike.

Hamburg's red-green Senate has now officially approved the agreed entry of the Hapag-Lloyd rival into HHLA and forwarded a corresponding printed matter to the city parliament, which was able to finalize the deal in May. The city and the Geneva-based Italian Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) intend 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 the listed HHLA, which is to remain in its current form until the end of 2026./klm/DP/he