Piraeus Port Operations Shine for Cosco Pacific

The Greek port of Piraeus, until recently a hotbed of labor unrest, has become the star performer in Cosco Pacific’s terminal portfolio with a growth rate double that of the Hong Kong-based company’s second-best facility over the past year.

The Piraeus Container Terminal handled 178,700 20-foot-equivalent units in June, a 69.5 percent increase on the same period a year ago, according to Cosco Pacific’s latest traffic figures.

Traffic soared 117.5 percent in the year to June 30, to 1.05 million TEUs from 484,000 TEUs in the year-earlier period.

Cosco Pacific, a unit of China Ocean Shipping, paid around $5 billion in October 2009 for an initial 30-year concession to develop and operate container operations in Piraeus in the face of fierce opposition and strikes by Greek dockworkers.

Second-ranked Cosco-PSA Terminal in Singapore boosted June traffic by 61.8 percent to 145,500 TEUs, but growth during the past year slowed to 28.8 percent to reach 661,700 TEUs.

Cosco Pacific’s Antwerp terminal saw traffic decline 14.2 percent in June from a year ago to 85,400 TEUs, and drop 9.5 percent during the year to 549,000 TEUs.

The best performing Chinese terminal was Nanjing Port Longtan Container in the Yangtze River Delta, where June traffic grew 29.7 percent to 166,800 TEUs.

The company completed the upgrading of Pier 11 at the Piraeus terminal in June, which raised its annual capacity by 1 million TEUs to 2.6 million TEUs.

Cosco Pacific is contracted to build a third pier before 2015, which will add an additional 1.1 million TEUs annual capacity to its Greek operations.