The port of Piraeus will be equipped with five of the most modern cranes in the world, significantly upgrading the port's facilities and boosting its productivity, a Cosco representative said Friday.
Tasos Vamvakidis, commercial manager of Cosco, told the Athens News Agency that the the installation of the new cranes will allow Cosco to begin operating Pier III of the port sooner than expected. The first five cranes of the super-post panamax type arrived on Friday with the "Zhenhua 24" vessel from Shanghai, while another two similar cranes are expected soon. The port will be able to service vessels up to 360 metres in length and around 4,000 container boxes in 24 hours. The lifting ability of the new cranes is 65-85 tons, while each crane weighs around 2,000 tons.
We want to raise our productivity, Vamvakidis said, adding that with the operation of piers 2 and 3, the port will be able to manage around 4.3 million container boxes by the end of 2013.
Cosco handled around 3,911,674 container boxes in 4,191 ships in the period 2010-2012, while in the first quarter of 2013 it handled 535,000 containers. Cosco estimates that in the next two years the handling of container boxes will total 4.7 millon TEU from 2,108,087 in 2012.
The Chinese company employs around 1,000 Greek workers and operates four terminals in Pier II.