A logistics center, building of at least two hotels, expanding the sea cruise passenger port and building a new passenger terminal are among Cosco's plans for the development of the port of Piraeus by 2021.
The Chinese leadership's goal is Piraeus port -the largest port in Greece- to become a hub in the global transport system, with a leading role in sea cruise in the Mediterranean and to revive the ship repair activity.
Cosco presented its plans for the development of Piraeus port for consultation with all the city's and the port's agencies and unions.
The plan envisage the start -during the summer- of works to develop a logistics center in an area of 80,000 sq.m.. Cosco said it expected the arrival of a mega containership (with a transport capacity of 20,000+ TEUs) in the port of Piraeus in February 12, signalling the establishment of Piraeus as a hub in the sea route of a new silk road as one of European ports capable to servicing ships of this size. Cosco also expects the arrival of its new floating tank "Piraeus III" -to be installed at the ship-repair facilities in Perama, by the end of February or early March. The new tank, with a length of 240 metres, 45 metres wide and 18 metres deep, has a capacity of 205.66 tons.
Cosco is also implementing a series of works with the aim to upgrade facilities in the sea cruise service. Completion of works is expected in early March. Cosco plans to upgrade Piraeus port as a leader in sea cruise in the Mediterranean, attracting 580,000 passengers as home port of which 100,000 arriving from China.
It also plans to reconstruct the Pagoda building into a five-star hotel, to transform old warehouses into four and five-star hotels and to build a new hotel unit in the Porto Leone area. Plans also include construction of two five-storie parking stations, an immigration museum and an archives bureau.