Fujian Shipbuilding chairman Zhao Jinjie and a team of officials was in Greece to look for partnerships with machinery and equipment suppliers. What many saw as significant was an extensive visit to Elefsis Shipyard, Greece’s second largest shipyard and located a short distance from two booming container terminals run by Cosco Pacific in Piraeus.
Indeed, the visit to Elefsis has led to speculation Fujian Shipbuilding maybe interested in investing in the facility, which is already striving to create a relationship with Cosco, with a view to repairing and servicing Cosco ships and indeed, Chinese military vessels, both of which are in the Med in increasing numbers.
The speculation gained further credence by the fact that during his visit, and especially during his two hours spent with Nikos Tavoularis, chairman of the Athens-listed Neorion Syros Group, which owns Elefsis, Zhao was accompanied by Greek Foreign Ministry International Economic Relations general secretary Panagiotis Michalos and unusually for Greece by Athanassios Danoussis, deputy general secretary of the General Confederation of Greek Workers, Greece’s largest union.
Michalos a close associate and adviser to Prime minister Antonis Samaras, and is a friend of investor George Soros, while Danoussis is one of the country’s top trade union officials.
As one observer noted: “They want this to work and are taking no chances with the trade unions not being kept fully informed about developments, especially after the recent union problems in Cosco’s container terminals.”
Zhao expressed Fujian Shipbuilings interest in cooperating with Greek shipyards and Greek equipment manufacturers. Fujian already buys aluminium from Greece.Michalos noted shipbuilding is a sector with very strong prospects for boosting Sino-Greek collaboration, pointing to the more than 200 Greek-owned ships, which are currently under construction in Chinese shipyards. He suggested a memorandum of cooperation be added to the existing legal framework regarding bilateral collaboration, and also called on both sides to take full advantage of the existing financing tools offered by Chinese banks in recent years to Greek ship owners for work carried out in Greek and Chinese shipyards.
Meanwhile, Cosco remains frontrunner of six companies which have expressed an interest in acquiring the Greek state’s 67% holding in the Piraeus Port Authority, though Cosco Pacific's executive director Qiu Jinguang has hinted the company may not expand further in Piraeus.
Qiu has said the PPA has assets such as one container terminal, which he notes “handles a small volume of boxes [some 500,000teu annually] but it also “has assets in passenger terminals and storage facilities, which are not directly related to our business".
“Therefore our parent group submitted the bid, though we’re carefully monitoring the situation.” Qiu said if Cosco Group wins out, it may retain the assets rather than transfer them to his firm, though nothing is fixed yet.Drewry Maritime Equity Research says the Piraeus terminal is a gem for Cosco Pacific. “The concession agreement at Piraeus has been Cosco Pacific’s best decision in recent times,” it said. “Piraeus is a key central Mediterranean transhipment hub, which is likely to benefit from the strong volume growth in coming times."
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