Piraeus Port second in Med for containers
The container terminal at Piraeus has climbed to second place among the Mediterranean’s highest-ranking commercial ports at the end of 2018, just behind leader Valencia in Spain, which the Greek port is expected to overtake next year – as it did this year with Algeciras – according to the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Global Ports.
In terms of container handling, Piraeus ranks 37th in the world this year, having climbed seven spots in just two years, while its performance this year is likely to send it even higher. After all Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) owner Cosco regularly tops the annual Lloyd’s List chart of the strongest port operators in the world.
The three OLP terminals are expected to end the year having handled a total of 4.9 million containers, while Valencia is projected to hit 5.1 million containers. The improvement in Piraeus’s performance comes to between 15 and 20 percent year-on-year, depending on the final figures that will be made available in early 2019.
There was also an impressive rise in the number of vehicles handled at the Piraeus car terminal for the domestic market: From last year’s 100,000 vehicles, the figure is expected to increase to an estimated 120,000 vehicles by the end of the year.
