Three conditions for its development door in Piraeus in a major global logistics hub, says Chinese Ambassador to Athens Xiao Juncheng.
As he mentioned at a press conference, Greece is at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa and is an important gateway from Asia to Europe.
With the joint efforts of China and Greece, container throughput at the port of Piraeus is one of the highest in Europe.
“China,” Xiao Juncheng emphasized, “supports the development of the Port of Piraeus into a world-class leading logistics hub.
To achieve this goal, I believe the following should be done at the port of Piraeus:
- First, improve the port collection and distribution system, and in particular, improve the efficiency of port rail transportation and upgrade the electrification level of machinery.
- Secondly, to promote the construction of the Piraeus Logistics Park, in the context of the integrated development of Piraeus as a port, industrial center and city and to create a new “steam engine” for the development of the Greek economy.
- Third, improve the construction of onshore energy facilities as well as liquefied natural gas facilities in the port of Piraeus in order to increase the attractiveness of the development of the logistics of the port of Piraeus through green transformation”.
This is a systematic project and a long-term process, the Chinese ambassador stressed, adding: “The Chinese company is willing to discuss and promote it with Greek partners.”
The crisis in Eritrea
The crisis in Red Seawhich has lasted more than eight months since its outbreak last November, has had a significant impact on the stability of global supply chains.
The vast majority of shipping companies around the world have been forced to ship ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the Strait of Gibraltar before entering the Mediterranean Sea.
Financial cost
In order to reduce financial costs, these shipping lines have unloaded their containerized cargo for the port of Piraeus at Spanish ports in the Western Mediterranean and switched to smaller container ships, which has meant longer transit times, Juncheng noted and added:
“In other words, after the rerouting and change of ships, the transportation time from the Far East to the port of Piraeus increased from the initial 14 days to 28 days.”
O COSCO he also bypassed the route, but did not adopt the practice of changing ships at Western Mediterranean ports.
Instead, it insists on asking large vessels to approach the port of Piraeus directly, and the transit time has only been increased from the original 14 days to 22 days, in order to safeguard the interests of Greek importers as much as possible.
It did not look at the issue simply from the point of view of financial costs, nor did it simply pass on the costs of the bypass to Greek importers, like other shipping companies.
“This fully reflects their support for the Greek people and the development of the port of Piraeus,” Mr. Juncheng stressed.
Maritime arbitration on the agenda
Another major issue for shipping, that of maritime arbitration, was addressed by Mr. Juncheng during the briefing.
In particular, according to the Chinese ambassador, maritime arbitration is an important way to resolve maritime and commercial disputes, with the advantages of low time cost and flexible resolution.
Two weeks ago, a delegation from the China Maritime Arbitration Commission successfully visited Greece. During the visit, it had in-depth exchanges with the Hellenic Maritime Law Association, the Piraeus Maritime Arbitration Association and relevant law firms.
“China and Greece are both major maritime countries in the world, and there are broad prospects for cooperation between our two countries in the field of maritime arbitration.
As a next step, our two sides could continue to strengthen exchanges in the field of maritime arbitration.
We welcome Greek legal experts to provide relevant services to China’s maritime arbitration organizations, so as to jointly improve the level and international competitiveness of maritime arbitration between our two countries,” he said.
