Piraeus Targets Cruise Sector
Piraeus Port, Greece's largest, aims to increase its cruise traffic from 1 million passengers a year up to 1.5 million in the short-term and to 3 million long-term, its managing director, Fu Cheng Qiu, said on Friday. COSCO Shipping, which owns the world's fourth-largest container shipping fleet, bought 51 percent of the port's operating company last year, and plans significant investment to turn the port into a transhipment hub for rapidly growing trade between Asia and Eastern Europe. In a speech welcoming a first group of 250 Chinese cruise passengers in Piraeus, Fu, who took over last year, said COSCO also plans to upgrade cruise services to attract Chinese tourists and tap into the port's growth potential in the cruise industry in the Mediterranean Sea.
COSCO Sees Piraeus in Top Thirty by 2018
COSCO Shipping, plans to ramp up container volume at Greece’s biggest port in Piraeus by 35 percent by 2018, the port’s new managing director, Fu Cheng Qiu, said, reports Reuters. China's biggest shipping company, which owns the world's fourth-largest container shipping fleet, bought 51 percent of the port's operating company last month for 280.5 million euros ($315.5 million), one of Greece's biggest and most strategic privatizations since a debt crisis began in 2009. COSCO wants to boost the port's container traffic to 5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent container units) by 2018 under its plan to turn Greece into a transhipment hub for rapidly growing trade between Asia and Eastern Europe, Fu said in his first interview since COSCO took control of the port.
