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.
2012 May 12 15:53