The E.U.’s antitrust regulator could soon be looking at probing another transaction between Hong Kong port operator CK Hutchison and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
According to a report from Reuters, the European Commission is prepping to investigate a deal in which MSC and consortium partner BlackRock were set to take over 50 percent of Hutchison’s terminal at the Port of Barcelona.
Previous reports since early 2024 have tied MSC with the acquisition of half of Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST), with the Swiss container shipping giant expected to pay between 250 million euros and 350 million euros ($290 million and $406 million) for its half of the gateway. But details including BlackRock’s potential role in that deal have not been disclosed.
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The deal is separate from BlackRock and MSC’s bid for most of CK Hutchison’s global port operations, according to the ocean carrier. That $22.8 billion acquisition would see 43 ports switch hands, including two in Panama that have put the deal under significant international scrutiny. A probe by China’s antitrust regulator and internal investigations by the Panamanian government have largely held up the transaction.
Like the larger ports deal, MSC would be buying the portion of the Spanish terminal via its own terminal operator subsidiary, Terminal Investment Limited (TIL). TIL already operates a terminal at Spain’s Port of Valencia.
In early November, MSC and Hutchison filed for the E.U.’s approval of the plan to jointly control the terminal. The Port of Barcelona’s board of directors voted in June to authorize the transfer.
The European Commission has set a Dec. 10 deadline to decide whether it should approve the deal, the report said. According to the Reuters report, the commission is expected to open a full-scale investigation after the deadline.
Such a probe could see regulators demand concessions from either MSC or BlackRock in return for clearance. TIL’s operation of MSC Terminal Valencia could potentially influence the commission’s competition analysis.
Full-scale E.U. investigations typically last for four months or longer, with potential concessions including divestments to address the competition concerns. Non-E.U. assets would lie outside the commission’s jurisdiction.
For CK Hutchison, BlackRock and MSC, all parties are currently embroiled in plenty of other drama surrounding the two ports based on each side of the Panama Canal. Hutchison conceded in August that any deal transferring ownership of the Cristóbal and Balboa ports would not close by the end of 2025. Alongside needing approval from the Panamanian government, the port transaction would require regulatory go-aheads from the U.S., China, the U.K. and the E.U.
When news of the Panama ports deal was unveiled in March, Drewry indicated that such a transaction was likely to draw scrutiny from competition authorities, noting in a webinar that the risk of excess market concentration was highest in Spain, the Netherlands and Panama.
In Europe alone, TIL has ownership stakes in terminals across major ports including Antwerp in Belgium, Le Havre in France, and Germany’s Hamburg and Bremerhaven. Hutchinson is the majority stakeholder in ECT Rotterdam, the largest terminal operator at Europe’s biggest container port.
According to Drewry, the approval of the often-politicized 43-port transaction would give MSC a more than 15 percent market share of global terminal capacity.
Barcelona terminal in expansion mode
The Barcelona terminal is currently undergoing expansion, having increased yard storage capacity by 25 percent this year with the addition of seven new semi-automated container blocks. That investment cost a reported 150 million euros ($174 million).
In total, BEST now operates 34 blocks across the terminal. Each block has an annual storage capacity of approximately 100,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
BEST is also incorporating two new dockside ship-to-shore cranes from China’s ZPMC within the terminal’s infrastructure during the first half of 2026. Those cranes will have a height of 55 meters—10 meters taller than its current batch of cranes. The cranes are designed to service vessels with a beam that spans 26 containers at once.
The terminal handled 2.7 million containers last year. With the new blocks, BEST can handle 3.4 million TEUs.
According to Spain-based logistics publication El Mercantil, MSC already occupies 60 percent of the facility’s capacity.
Additionally, the terminal has an eight-track rail facility—making it the E.U.’s largest rail terminal on the Mediterranean Sea—that connects the port with traffic to and from southern Europe.
