China’s COSCO invests 230M euro in Piraeus Port
The Piraeus Port Authority and COSCO Holdings Group Co Ltd have completed an agreement to expand the Chinese company’s container operations at the Port of Piraeus in a deal worth 230 million euro.
The agreement involves the investment by COSCO in order to increase the handling capacity of the port of Piraeus to an annual 6.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) over the next seven years. Piraeus, one of Europe’s busiest tourism ports handling about 20 million passengers a year, aspires to become a gateway for Chinese trade into the region.
“This agreement is as valuable as the initial one which brought the Chinese company to Greece,” Greek shipping minister Miltiades Varvitsiotis said. “This is the biggest investment in Greece since the crisis. It proves the country’s image is changing and that with consistent work growth could return. Our aim is to make Piraeus the metropolitan port of the Mediterranean for the next 25 years,” he said
The deal also includes the creation of an oil pier as well as new mechanical equipment in piers II and III. It is also estimated that the investment will generate 700 new jobs in Piraeus along with another 1500 indirectly while it ensures the growth prospects of the port of Piraeus.
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(Photo: Mark Merifield/flickr.com)
