Cosco's Piraeus growth tops EU at 18pc, Hong Kong's Felixstowe No 2

THE Greek Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) near Athens has won high praise under the direction of China's Cosco Pacific for topping the top 10 European container ports in growth last year. 

Growth at Piraeus far outstrips that at other top-10 European box ports, with Hong Kong's Hutchison-owned Felixstowe in the UK reporting the next highest, at seven per cent. 

Monika Rozmarynowska, a consultant at Actia Forum, a public relations agency based in Gdynia, Poland, compiled the report entitled Top Ten European Container Ports in 2014. 

"Generally, PCT has been recording high growth rates after Cosco Pacific took in 2009. These results are mainly due to growth in transshipment and transit volumes," she told IHS Maritime 360.

The terminal has enjoyed strong performance since it was taken over by China's Cosco Pacific, proving that privatisation has been a success, Ms Rozmarynowsk report said.

Since the terminal was privatised in 2009, its new owner, Cosco Pacific, has managed double-digit annual growth numbers, which has seen Piraeus break into Europe's top 10 box ports. In 2014 the port's box handling rose 17.1 per cent year on year to 3.7 million TEU.

While PCT grew 18.5 per cent to 2.98 million TEU the public sector terminal run by the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) lifted 700,000 TEU.