Cosco in $4.2b deal to run Piraeus port

Cosco Pacific, a port operator subsidiary of China's state-owned shipping giant China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co (Cosco), has signed a US$4.2 billion deal to take over management of Greece's container port Piraeus.

Cosco has signed a 35-year lease and will spend US$707 million to upgrade port facilities, build a new pier and almost triple the volume of cargo the port can handle, reported China Daily.

The move is part of an effort to create a network of ports, logistics centres and railways to distribute Chinese products across Europe - in essence a modern Silk Road - hastening the speed of East West trade and creating a valuable economic foothold on the continent.

The Piraeus port in Athens can currently load and unload 1.8 million containers a year.

With a strategic position near the Straits of Bosphorus, the port also provides a way into the Black Sea region, central Asia and Russia.

Cosco aims to make the container port a hub to rival Rotterdam, Europe's largest port.

Many see the latest Cosco investment as just the beginning of a far broader scheme to access European markets.

By the end of the year China is expected to make a joint bid with a Greek company to create a $252.2 million logistics hub at Attica, near the port, to distribute goods from China into the Balkans and the rest of the continent. The Chinese are also in talks to buy a share in the struggling state-owned railway in Greece.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)