Even towards the end, the agreement did no come easily and before the vote of approval PPA head, George Anomeritis, threatened to resign when port unionists tried to block his entry to the conference hall, 25 November. Originally labelled a "friendly arrangement" between the PPA and the Greek subsidiary of the Chinese giant (SEP), obstacles kept on cropping up.
It was evident the Chinese were annoyed by the delays especially after a number of top level meetings in Athens since the spring. Bejing has placed great emphasis on the successful completion of the investment, which was planned for more than two years ago. It had cleared the European Commission’s competitiveness concerns but ran into issues with legal interpretations with Greece's State Audit Council.
These interpretations, adopted by the management of the Athens Stock Exchange-listed port authority, had resulted in the failure of a 11 November general meeting to approve the revamped contract.
Some $300m has already been spent by Chinese investors in Piraeus. Further, a planned $2.5bn investment in infrastructure in Southeastern Europe, and even a strategic plan by Beijing worth $40bn for the so-called new “Roads of Silk” were factored in during the shareholder discussion leading up to the decision taken to green-light development of container terminal III under a 35-year concession signed with the PPA in 2009 Cosco Pacific secured operational rights over terminals II and III.
Cosco's main concern centred on the Court of Auditor's interventions regarding minimum guaranteed returns. The Chinese side wanted, and secured, the minimum guaranteed returns to be associated with GDP, which was significantly different in 2009.
Port workers claim SEP is not currently paying rent for the eastern part of terminal III, despite having completed work there and notes the company is obliged to construct the western part of the pier under the same settlement deal.
China sees Piraeus as a gateway to Europe, and some 4m teu is expected to be handled in the port this year, making it one of the 10 largest box ports in Europe and the fastest growing.
Piraeus has expanded cargo-train shipping and Cosco recently added a fourth multinational to its clients, providing container services to electronics giant Sony, transferring its merchandise from ships coming into the port onto railway destined for Central European markets.
This is the fourth major multinational company to choose Piraeus as its entry gate to Europe, following China’s Huawei and ZTE Corp and US firm Hewlett Packard, underlining the urgency for Piraeus to upgrade its infrastructure up yet another notch as the goods moving by rail primarily go to Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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