Greece's Piraeus port has developed impressively since the COSCO Shipping Corporation took over the management of the site nine years ago. COSCO Shipping's vision is to turn Piraeus Port into a leading international transit hub for products and services from Asia to Europe. 

What are the new changes? What benefits have the development of the port brought to the local Greeks? 

Piraeus port is where the modern maritime Silk Road connects with the land routes. It’s the largest Greek seaport and one of the biggest in the Mediterranean Sea and Europe.

COSCO Shipping's subsidiary Piraeus Container Terminal has been managing Piers II and III at Greece's largest port since 2009 under a 35-year concession agreement. COSCO Shipping wants to boost the port's overall cargo traffic to over 6 million containers by 2019, up from just over 4 million at the end of 2017.

Nikolaos Petsos works for the commercial department of Piraeus Container Terminal, and he has witnessed the changes that the terminal has undergone over the past few years. It has been extended and upgraded with new infrastructure projects.

He said the terminal has been linked with the Greek railways, and new gigantic cranes have been installed. “The most important and significant fact is that COSCO Shipping Piraeus have spent more than 550 million euros in seven years in innovative super infrastructure as well as installed new generation of equipment such as the electronic gigantic cranes. It’s the combination of the investment, the natural characteristics of the port, the innovative operating system that gives us the ability to operate in a very efficient and productive way, the giga-container vessels of 18,000 to 20,000 TEUs. The employment rate has been rising, we have 1,600 people working here directly, and approximately 200 working indirectly. All these are newly created positions, directly linked to COSCO Shipping Port investment.” Nikolaos added. 

COSCO Shipping also took over the management of Piraeus Port Authority which now runs Pier I.

In addition to the vigorous development of the container sector, investment in shipbuilding and repair, international cruise ships, and car terminals is also expanding this year.

Nektarios Demenopoulos, deputy manager of public relations at Piraeus Port Authority, said: “This will further affect the development of the local economy. These vessels are linked to ship repair and the cruise industry, enlarging the cruise business of Piraeus Port. This serves the goal of exploiting the geographical position of the port, developing it as a hub and logistics center to explore markets in the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Central and Eastern Europe. So we believe being part of this huge Belt and Road project has significant and positive effects for the local and national economy of Greece.”

Many local people say the value-added services at the port will open new doors for the Greek economy. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for Greeks and Chinese to turn the port into a transfer hub for containers in the Mediterranean, a bridgehead for land-ocean transportation, and a pivotal point for more cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. 

(video filmed by cameraman Chen Weikui)