Cosco has come under fire for labor issues at Piraeus.
Not more than a year back, the Port of Piraeus was plagued with an 18-strike that brought the country’s economy to a halt, seriously impacting ship agent companies and once more destroying the Mediterranean port’s reputation abroad. Today, it seems that a new wind is blowing, bringing with him a renewed container terminal, managed by the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP), while Chinese conglomerate has managed to settle in and seriously change the port’s landscape.
As voiced by the company’s local manager, “we aim to create an ultra-modern container terminal, which will evolve to become the biggest in the Mediterranean Sea and change the current mentality in the transportation sector, towards more automated procedures”. The plan is to upgrade Pier II’s capacity from 1.6 million TEUs currently, to 2.6 million TEUs by the end of April 2014. At the same time, Cosco is also planning to construct an additional Pier III; which is expected to further increase the port’s capacity by an additional 1.1 million TEUs. The new pier will have a length of 600 metres. Cosco’s total investment in terms of upgrading both Piers is expected to reach almost 150 million euros.