The Federal Chancellery advocated this against the opposition of six specialist ministries. The government then agreed on a compromise: the Chinese shipping company may acquire a maximum of 24.9 percent of the terminal's operating company, not 35 percent as planned. Chancellor Scholz will travel to China next week.

The federal government's investment review process has been running for months and would have expired at the end of October, government spokeswoman Hoffmann said. The decision for or against the Cosco participation had to be made "this week". The spokeswoman did not want to comment on whether the Federal Chancellery had been in contact with the company before the decision was made.