CHINA Cosco Shipping Group, which has sealed the acquisition of a majority stake in Greece’s Piraeus Port Authority decided to invest half a billion USD more – in addition to the 350m EUR investment over the next 10 years that is already included in its agreement with Athens – which will be used to construct and expand Piraeus’ facilities in several sectors, including cruise ship, containership, ro-ro and ship repair.
Plans are made to turn Piraeus into one of the largest home port for cruiseships worldwide and in this respect they are planning to build a terminal than can accommodate world’s largest cruiseships and respective passenger center that would be big enough to welcome more than 10000 visitors.
Existing Container terminal facilities would be improved by adding better logistics and storage systems and by constructing a high-speed freight railway that will connect Piraeus directly with Central Europe; this way cargoes from China will more easily and quickly be able to reach the landlocked European countries, or vice versa.