Piraeus terminal is thriving
Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT), the subsidiary of China?s Cosco, is going from strength to strength through Dock II of the country?s main port, as in the first quarter of 2012 it more than doubled the container traffic it handles from the year before.
PCT official data showed that traffic rose to 504,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (teu) in January-March 2012 from 205,000 teu in the same period last year.
According to users of the Piraeus terminal this means that the Chinese company has a growth strategy in order to transform it into a strategic transit center for goods to Europe and the Balkans, and that the presence of a second service provider, besides state-run Piraeus Port Authority (OLP), has increased competitiveness at the commercial port. As a result Piraeus is now off the black list it had been on in recent years owing to repeated industrial action by port workers.
PCT has also moved up to being the second busiest Cosco terminal in Europe and the Mediterranean, after Suez, out of the company?s four terminals.
