Port operating companies

One in every four employees at the recently privatized Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) has expressed an interest in transferring to the broader state sector.

Business at Greece's two privatized ports, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, could increase the country's gross domestic product by up to 5.6 billion euros a year, a survey by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) has found. The strategic position of Greece's two main ports is seen as crucial for international trade.

Piraeus Port (OLP), operator of Greece's biggest port and majority-owned by China's Cosco Shipping, has agreed to team up with the operator of Shanghai port, the world's largest container port, to promote container shipping traffic.

Two Chinese officials will be in Piraeus on Monday to sign a cooperation memorandum between Piraeus Port Authority (OLP), its owner Cosco, and the port of Shanghai, concerning the increase in incoming cargo from China to Europe.

The deal will be signed by China Cosco Shipping Corporation Limited head Xu Lirong and the Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) chairman Chen Xuyuan.

China Cosco Shipping Corporation Limited chairman Xu Lirong is about to arrive in Athens to sign two memorandums of cooperation, both of which are of high symbolic importance to Beijing. Xu will be joined by the head of the Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), the country's biggest port authority.

Sarantos Zilakos, a young Greek electrical engineer, is leaving work each afternoon since 2011 with a warm smile on his face. He returns home to his wife and 17-month-old daughter proud, because he feels he is making his own contribution to a major project that has been praised internationally as a success story of bilateral cooperation between Greece and China.

A few days before Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras heads off to Beijing to take part in the Belt and Road Initiative Forum in search of investors, Chinese group Cosco is faced with a fresh obstacle in its plans to develop the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) as the Ministry of Culture says it wants to acquire OLP buildings.

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.

Works outlined in an investment program launched by Cosco for Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) will be taking off after the selection of the independent engineer who will be monitoring the projects according to the concession contract signed with the Greek state.

This Friday is the deadline for bids for a majority package in Thessaloniki Port Authority (OLTH), but it appears that if the offers of the two suitors are too close to one another there may be an extension up to May 10.