German seaports need a total of €15 billion ($18 billion) for refurbishment and expansion, according to the association representing the sector.
“This concerns decaying quays and the lack of surfaces that can handle heavy loads, up to the absence of links to the hinterland of the ports,” Angela Titzrath, head of the ZDS seaport association, told Sunday’s edition of Die Welt newspaper in comments seen in advance by dpa.
The €15 billion would come to just 3% of the funds earmarked by the new German government for improving the country’s infrastructure. “With that, we could fully and sustainably implement all urgent modernization within 12 years,” she said.
Titzrath said the amount would not have to come from the infrastructure fund alone, but could be drawn from the defence budget, the climate fund, the Economy Ministry or the transport budget.
Germany’s seaports had a key role in all these areas, justifying expenditure from various funds set up by the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which took office at the beginning of May and has since pledged major investment in infrastructure and defence.
Titzrath called on the federal government to take on a much larger role in supporting the country’s ports by raising the annual amount from currently €38 million €500 million, “so that the shortcomings of the past are not repeated.”
She welcomed federal government support of an additional €400 million over four years from the climate and energy transformation fund for the modernization of shipping and ports in a climate-friendly way.
“Sea and river ports urgently need stronger federal government involvement,” Titzrath said, adding that Germany’s coastal states were unable to meet the challenges on their own.
Source: dpa
