Cosco Pacific eyes privatised Greek port of Piraeus investment opportunity

Time:2012-06-29 Browse:51 Author:RISINGSUN
HONG KONG listed Cosco Pacific, the terminal operating arm of Cosco Group, is eyeing investment opportunities ahead of Greek`s planned US$62 million port privatisation programme to include ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki.


Cosco Pacific is looking to gain a stake in Port of Piraeus Pier 1 to add to its operations at Pier 2 and will build a deep-sea facility at Pier 3. It hopes to tie up it operations into a logistics centre within 20 miles of Piraeus at $350 million investment.


It signed a 35-year concession in June 2010 in a $4.3 billion contract with payment of its operations on Pier 2 terminal for $125 million a year to the Greek government.

 
It is holding off from firm decisions but is to carry out an in-depth feasibility study alongside contingency plans for worse-case scenario should Greece exit the eurozone, said its managing director Fu Chengqui of a process slowed down by the formation of a new Greek government.


Despite the severity of Greek`s economic crisis, Mr Fu said he sees the port based outside of its capital Athens as having the geographic edge with plans to bump its capacity to 3.7 million TEU. He expects the ports throughput to hit 2.1 million TEU in 2012 after gaining 870,000 TEU in the first five months of the year.

 
"We have not only survived but have also broken historic records in handling containers," he said in an interview with China Daily.