Germany Nationale Hafenstrategie 2024 (National Ports Strategy)

Mechanism

The Nationale Hafenstrategie is the foundational federal-level industrial-policy instrument for German sea and inland ports. It replaces the 2015 Nationales Hafenkonzept and is structured into two parts: a strategic part setting out five fields of action with guideline objectives, and a measures part containing approximately 140 operative measures explicitly framed as a "living document" that will be continuously updated as new measures are added and implemented measures are removed.

The five fields of action span: 1. Ports as sustainable hubs for the energy transition (offshore wind logistics, hydrogen import infrastructure, electrification of port operations); 2. Competitiveness and innovation; 3. Sustainability, climate adaptation and environmental protection; 4. Resilient and digital supply chains; 5. Adequate traffic and communications infrastructure.

The strategy was co-developed by BMDV (now BMV — Bundesministerium für Verkehr) together with the coastal Länder (Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), the inland-port states, the Zentralverband der Deutschen Seehafenbetriebe (ZDS), the Bundesverband Öffentlicher Binnenhäfen (BÖB), and the ver.di trade union — a tripartite government–industry–labour process unusual for German federal industrial strategy.

Downstream implications

• Germany's ports anchor the EU's second-largest container-throughput

jurisdiction (after the Netherlands) and the largest single-country sea-trade cluster for the EU energy-transition build-out (offshore wind, hydrogen imports, LNG terminals). The strategy provides the federal-level coordination framework underneath which the BMWK Hydrogen Import Strategy, the offshore wind expansion targets, and the EU Critical Raw Materials Act logistics build-out all operate.

• The "living document" architecture means downstream financing and

regulatory measures (port-fee reform, federal-Länder cost-sharing, energy- transition capex for terminals) will be filed as separate amendments or follow-on actions rather than being locked in by this document.

• Severity is set at 3 (medium): the strategy itself is a coordination

framework rather than a binding funding statute — the binding fiscal instruments (KTF Wirtschaftsplan, SVIKG Sondervermögen) sit upstream of it and feed individual port projects via separate budget lines.

Open questions

• What share of the SVIKG Sondervermögen Infrastruktur is earmarked for port

energy-transition capex under this strategy?

• Will the federal–Länder cost-sharing dispute (the long-running debate over

Bundeshafenlastenausgleich) be resolved through a subsequent statute, or remain inside the "living document" measures part?

• How does the strategy interact with the EU Ports Package and EU state-aid

rules for port infrastructure (Regulation 2017/352)?