Interview: COSCO sees Greece's Piraeus among world's top 30 ports by 2018

Piraeus Port Authority SA

22/09/2016 17:52

By Angeliki Koutantou 
    ATHENS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - China's biggest shipping 
company, COSCO Shipping  600428.SS , plans to ramp up container 
volume at Greece's biggest port in  Piraeus  OLPr.AT  by 35 
percent by 2018, the port's new managing director, Fu Cheng Qiu, 
told Reuters on Thursday. 
    COSCO Shipping, which owns the world's fourth-largest 
container shipping fleet, bought 51 percent of the port's 
operating company last month for 280.5 million euros ($315.5 
million), one of Greece's biggest and most strategic 
privatisations since a debt crisis began in 2009. 
    COSCO wants to boost the port's container traffic to 5 
million TEUs (20-foot equivalent container units) by 2018 under 
its plan to turn Greece into a transhipment hub for rapidly 
growing trade between Asia and Eastern Europe, Fu said in his 
first interview since COSCO took control of the port. 
    "If we reach that level...Piraeus port would be among the 
world's 30 largest container ports," he said from his office, 
decorated with European Union, Chinese and Greek flags. 
    The planned expansion would take Piraeus to Europe's 
fifth-busiest container port from eighth, overtaking Spain's 
Algeciras and Valencia, according to data from website 
PortEconomics. 
    COSCO has been managing two of the port's cargo piers 
through its Greek unit, PCT, since 2009, when the debt crisis 
shut out the nation from debt markets and scared investors away. 
    The shipping group has spent millions of euros to upgrade 
port facilities and annual throughput has more than tripled to 
3.3 million TEUs last year from 880,000 TEUs in 2010. It is 
projected to reach 3.7 million this year. 
    Piraeus has shot up world rankings of container ports to 44 
last year from 93 in 2010, Fu said. 
    Container business accounts for more than half of Piraeus' 
total turnover of around 100 million euros last year.  
    Under the privatisation deal with Greece, COSCO must 
conclude investments of about 300 million euros in five years 
before buying an additional 16 percent stake in the port. 
    Fu said the additional investment would be used mainly to 
upgrade ship repair, logistics and cruise operations, adding 
that a detailed business plan would be ready in November.  
    Greece has been struggling to kickstart its economy and 
reduce youth unemployment of 49 percent after seven years of 
austerity-induced recession. 
    "Through our investments (we want) to create more jobs for 
the benefit of the local community," he said. "A company, of 
course, always needs new blood...in order to be growing." 
    Piraeus employs about 1,100 people. Labour unions opposed 
the port sale, fearing job and wage cuts and worsening labour 
conditions. 
    Fu said COSCO "is very careful and very serious about these 
issues...and is handling them in line with the law". 
    ($1 = 0.8891 euros) 
 
 (Editing by Mark Bendeich) 
 ((angeliki.koutantou@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376436; 
Reuters Messaging: angeliki.koutantou.reuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: GREECE COSCO/PIRAEUS