By A. Tsimplakis
Roughly 22 percent of Cosco Ports revenues come from its Piraeus-based subsidiary PCT, which manages pier II and pier III at within the port of Piraeus, whose port authority is run by the Shanghai-based parent company. Cosco also owns a majority stake of the Piraeus Port Authority.
PCT’s revenues for H1 2018 increased by 31 percent from the same period of 2017, reaching 111.45 million USD.
Cosco Ports’ total revenue for the same period reached 495.45 million USD, a whopping 80-percent increase from the same period in 2017.
During the same half-year period, PCT transported 2.075 million containers, up from 1.75 million in H1 2017, an increase of 18.4 percent.
In terms of profitability, PCT reported 13.64 million USD, up 25.8 percent from the same period in 2017. Total group profits reached 168.98 million USD in the specific six-month period.
In a related development, PCT executive Zhang Anming told the state-run news agency in Greece this week that the “transport of goods has more than tripled over the last years in Piraeus”.
Specifically, container traffic increased by 6.4 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, from piers II and III at the port of Piraeus, managed by the Piraeus Container Terminal. In absolute numbers over 2017, 3.691 million containers were transported (Teus) compared with 3.471 million in 2016.
Zhang predicted that the figure in 2018 can be surpassed.
“In one and a half years, Piraeus will become the largest port of the Mediterranean, from third as it is today,” Zhang said, adding: “Piraeus is the fastest growing port in the world. Only this year, the management seeks to increase freight traffic by 35 percent.”
