A new increase of 3.6% was recorded in July by the handling of containers from the two piers of SEP, a subsidiary of Cosco SHIPPING Ports, in the Port of Piraeus, in a sample of gradual return to normalcy.

However, in the first seven months of the year, handling fell by 23,000 containers or 0.8% compared to the corresponding seven months of 2020 and amounted to 2,815.6 thousand teu compared to 2,838.7 thousand boxes in the seven months of 2020.

It is worth noting, however, that the other Cosco ports in our neighborhood are running at higher growth rates.

In fact, COSCO SHIPPING Ports Limited (CSPL), the parent company of SEP, citing the monthly movement of containers in the ports it controls in China and the rest of the world, points out that CSPL accelerated its growth dynamics with the further recovery of demand from overseas. The terminal at CSP Zeebrugge in Belgium, as it notes, recovered further, recording in July an annual increase in cargo handling by 65.0%. In the seven months of January-July, CSP Zeebrugge Terminal NV handled 509.6 thousand containers (+ 50.4%).

Also in the seven months in Spain, COSCO SHIPPING Ports (Spain) Terminals S.L.U. handled 2,097.3 thousand Teu increased by 14.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2020 while an increase of 5.7% (732.6 thousand teu) had the port of Kumport in Turkey while 5.5% (1,313.2 thousand Teu) increased the circulation of containers in Antwerp Gateway NV, Belgium. Finally, teu traffic (1,568.3 thousand) increased by 16.4% in the seven months at the Euromax Terminal Rotterdam B.Vt in Rotterdam.

Piraeus: Two places lower in 2020

In the meantime, for the first time since 2015 and four years of continuous growth, the port of Piraeus recorded in 2020, a drop in transport traffic amid the coronavirus pandemic

According to the annual edition of “Lloyd’s List of One Hundred Ports”, the total traffic of containers in the port, decreased in 2020 by 3.7% last year, mainly due to the decrease recorded by piers II and III belonging to SEP (Cosco Shipping Ports) while Pier I belonging to the PPA (Cosco group) recorded an increase of 10.5%. A total of 5,437,477 teu were transported from the port of Piraeus, compared to 5,648,056 teu in 2019, as a result of which it is in the 28th position of the world ranking from the 26th position in 2019.

However, Cosco launched new investments in the port of Piraeus with the installation of four new Super Post Panamax loading and unloading cranes, which will be able to serve mega container ships of 20,000 TEU, increasing the total annual capacity of the port to 8 million.

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