PCCI’S President V.Korkidis and PCT’S Commercial Manager T.Vamvakidis - Meeting with the delegation of Tianjin Port

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With the aim of promoting bilateral, commercial and maritime cooperation, the President of the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Vassilis Korkidis, and the member of PCCI’s Board of Directors and Commercial Manager of PCT S.A., Mr. Tassos Vamvakidis, welcomed, yesterday, June 25th 2019, a Chinese delegation, headed by the Vice President of Tianjin Port (Group) Co., LTD, Mr. Li Quaniyong.

With references to the current state of the two major ports of Piraeus and Tianjin, both sides referred to their multifaceted work, their contribution to the business community and the economies of the two countries, as well as their potential for future cooperation.

Piraeus, on the one hand, as the "southeastern gate" of Europe, is today the 2nd largest port in the Mediterranean, the 6th in Europe and the 32nd in the world. A decade after China's first investment in the port of Piraeus, China-Greece partnership is trying to make Piraeus number one port in the Mediterranean Sea, 4th in Europe and among the 30 largest ports in the world.

With regard to Cosco Shipping's investment in the port of Piraeus, it is a successful example of mutually beneficial cooperation between Greece and China. The aim is common: the rise of Piraeus in the ranking of ports worldwide, a more rapid pace of investment to further contribute to the development of the Greek economy, to promote relations in the fields of trade, tourism and supply chain. Undoubtedly, the Chinese investment at Piraeus Port has given business incentives to the wider region, while increasing the investment interest of Greek and foreign companies. PCCI’s Board of Directors, considering the port of Piraeus to be a great power of the Greek economy, supports the effort of OLP S.A. to further develop Piraeus so that local businesses can serve, repair and supply more ships.

The port of Tianjin, on the other hand, located at the juncture of the Beijing-Tianjin city belt and the economic circle of the Bohai Rim Region, is the largest comprehensive port and an important foreign trade port in North China, a hub connecting Northeast Asia with Midwest Asia, a gateway of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from the sea, the eastern start point of China-Mongolia-Russia economic passage, an important hub of new Eurasia continental bridge and a strategic fulcrum of 21st century maritime silk road.

It has trade relations with more than 500 ports in over 180 countries and regions. Every month, there are about 550 scheduled vessels connecting with the main ports in the world. It possesses specialized terminals respectively for containers, iron ore, coal, coke, crude oil and petrochemical products, steel, machinery, ro-ro vehicle, LNG, bulk grain and international cruise. There are totally 173 various berths in Tanjin Port, including 128 berths over 10.000 tons. In 2018, the cargo throughput the port exceeded 500 million tons; containers throughput exceeded 16 million TEUs which rank in among the top ten ports in the world.

The Group is the leading port operator at the port of Tianjin and operates in three business segments: container and non-containerised cargo handling businesses, sales business and port ancillary services businesses.

Both parts, referring to ports experiencing fast pace of growth, changing into “smart ports”, aiming at reaching full automation with emphasis on digitalization and respect to social responsibility, ended up by agreeing that a co-operation in the shipping industry could be very promising.

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