Hellenic ports lose competitiveness edge from strikes

[Neptune]

Amid the Hellenic governmentals efforts to allow for private operators to assume operation of container handling facilities in the country's major ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, the dock workers' strikes, the latest recorded Wednesdays, have turned shipping companies away from the country and to neighbouring and competing port destinations like Egypt, southern Italy and Turkey.

The latest development has seen shippers imposing a freight surcharge ranging between $50 and $200 for every TEU, mainly because of the dreadful handling times required. Already, the port of Thessalonica delays have reached approximately eight days for each container to be handled, with the Port Authority registering losses of about 1.5 million euros. Meanwhile, handling of conventional cargo types has decreased by 21%, losing the port about 300,000 euros.

The latest developments in the country's port aspiring to become the new ''transhipment hub of the Balcans'', are a bit ironic, when a total of eight private entities have already procurred the tendering process documents and are expected to participate. We mention the likes of Cosco Pacific, DP World, APM Terminals, Hutchinson, ACTSI from Philippines, Singaporeans PSA, a construction group, as well as a Canadian fund.

While the situation has become alarming for all productive classes in the country, especially importing and exporting companies, the government is trying to improve some of the points of the draft bill it intends to bring to the Parliament for voting, regarding dock workers terms of employment and voluntary retirement, linked to the tendering awards.

In the meantime, the danger looms for both ports to become ''finder ports'', as mentioned recently by Mr. Nikos Arvanitis, President of the International Maritime Union. Already, it is of crucial significance to attract major liner companies, which already are “bombarded†by competing ports in the region to make their port of calls there, instead of Hellas.

N. Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News