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WHAT

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Piraeus is the largest port in Greece, located only a few miles from the capital Athens. It handles around three quarters of the country’s container trade, and is the main hub for domestic shipping services to the Greek islands.

It is also the only port in Greece with large amounts of transshipment traffic, which in 2007 – the year in which the PPP was tendered - accounted for 37% of its throughput. At the beginning of the decade Piraeus had been one of the largest container transshipment hubs for the East Mediterranean, but by the time of the tender it was facing growing competition from newer ports such as Suez Canal East (Egypt) and Ambarli (Turkey).

Figure 1: Importance of Transshipment Traffic (‘000 TEU)

Source: Pallis & Psaraftis (2012)

The project included the concession of Piraeus port Pier II to a private operator on condition that part of the cash flow was used to fund investment in Pier III (not yet existing). The capacity of Pier II was also to be increased from 1.7m TEU to 2.7m TEU p.a., mainly through equipment upgrades and an increase in the container stacking density. At the time the Piraeus concession was tendered, the port had two container terminals. Pier I, the original container terminal, was quite small with equipment coming up for renewal. Pier II was larger and more modern, and had greater scope for expansion, with the site of the proposed Pier III lying immediately adjacent. Pier I continues to be operated by the port authority, and actively competes with the concessioned terminal at Pier II.

Table 1: Piraeus Container Terminals at the Time of Tender Pier 1 Pier II Pier III (proposed) Quay length (m) Water depth (m) Storage capacity (TEU) Estimated annual capacity 680a 12a 4,090 0.8m TEUc 2,307 12-18 30,500 1.7m TEUd 600e 14-18 n.a 1.0m TEU Notes: (a) subsequently increased to 820m

           (b) subsequently increased to 18m for 500m of quay
           (c) subsequently increased to 1.1m TEU p.a.
           (d) with scope for further expansion to 2.7m TEU
           (e) tender requirement

Source: Piraeus Port Authority