Piraeus port container traffic posts growth

Piraeus Port Authority SA (OLP), which operates Greece’s biggest port, said containers handled at Pier I in the first quarter rose 46 percent from a year earlier, Bloomberg reports.  The pier handled 166,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), up from 113,990 in the first quarter of 2011, the authority said in a statement on its website.

Container traffic was boosted by the MSC Eva, one of the world’s largest container ships with a carrying capacity of 14,000 TEUs. The vessel is owned by Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co., the world’s number two container line, according to the statement.

Greece plans to sell its 74.5 percent stake in PPA this year as part of a program to sell state assets and redevelop real estate to boost public revenue.

The port’s Pier II is run by Piraeus Container Terminal SA, a unit of Cosco Pacific Ltd., which will build a Pier III.