Port operating companies

In the next few days - if not on Tuesday - Cosco is expected to submit to the Port Planning and Development Commission a memorandum with its remarks on the watchdog's original opinion.

After a lengthy meeting that went on until midnight on Tuesday, the Central Archaeological Council (KAS) has decided to obstruct the Cosco-owned Piraeus Port Authority's (OLP) 600-million-euro master plan by characterizing a large part of Piraeus as an area of archaeological interest that must be protected.

Environment and Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis sought to dispel fears over possible setbacks in the investment plan of Chinese giant Cosco in Piraeus on Wednesday, after Greece's top advisory body on the protection of antiquities voted to declare part of the area in question to be of archaeological interest.

Cosco's 580-million-euro investment program for Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) looks set to reach an impasse, if expectations that the OLP master plan will be rejected by the state following Tuesday's discussion at the Port Planning and Development Commission prove correct.

Sources in Piraeus say it will be hard for the Piraeus Port Authority's (OLP) masterplan to win approval during the current pre-election period.

The container terminal at Piraeus has climbed to second place among the Mediterranean's highest-ranking commercial ports at the end of 2018, just behind leader Valencia in Spain, which the Greek port is expected to overtake next year - as it did this year with Algeciras - according to the Lloyd's List Top 100 Global Ports.

China's largest shipping group, Cosco Shipping, is considering raising capital for the first time on the London Stock Exchange through a new initiative with Shanghai's bourse, two finance sources familiar with the matter have said.

COSCO shipping lines, China's largest state-owned international and domestic container shipping and related services company, is opening its first branch in Sarajevo on Tuesday.

The industrial action port worker unions have called for Wednesday at docks II and III of Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) are threatening yet another blockade of the country's main port.

A blockade of the cargo terminal run by China's Cosco at Piraeus by disgruntled port workers was lifted on Saturday after the strike was declared illegal by a Piraeus court following an appeal by the companies who supply the work force to Piraeus Container Terminal.