Fraport, Ferrovie, Cosco and CMA, the new “giants” of the domestic transportation market

2018 is expected to be a completely different year, regarding transport in Greece, compared to 2017. This new reality is a result of international players and investors, having started to operate large-scale infrastructure in the country. These pieces of infrastructure, will definitely play an important role in the growth of Greece’s transport sector and will contribute considerably to make the country a global commercial hub.

First of all, there is the world-class, Chinese giant, COSCO, which has taken over the reins of Piraeus Port with a 51% stake. A huge increase has already been recorded in container shipments, with predictions for the coming years being very optimistic and indicate further growth. The recent completion of crucial infrastructure (i.e. high-speed railway lines and the new motorway network) will maintain and even boost the positive momentum, while an investment program of 350mio euros in total, till 2021, creates more expectations.

The Italian Group, Ferrovie Dello State Italiane has assumed management of TRAINOSE, the formerly state-owned railway company of Greece, since September 2017. The state of the organizations, when passed to the Italians, was not flattering but its potential remains obvious. The completion of construction works on Piraeus-Thessaloniki-Idomeni (borders with FYROM) corridor is a matter of few months, and from 2019, intense competition is expected on one hand, regarding passenger transportation, with the airports on the on the other hand with the new and expanded motorway network as far as cargo services are concerned.

The German airports operator, Fraport, along with Kopelouzos Group, created Fraport Greece, which has taken over 14 Regional Airports across the country, since last April. The “flagship” airport is “Makedonia” International in Thessaloniki. Currently, a reorganization of the operation of these airports, as well as extensive improvement projects are underway. The budget of those interventions by the investors, will exceed 400mio euros by 2021. The main target is to create modern, functional airports with high quality services that will highlight the well-deserved touristic destinations of the country.

The French CMA together with DIEP and Belterra (Savvides Group) will assume management of the Port of Thessaloniki in a few months’ time. Thessaloniki Port already demonstrates a robust growth rate with a significant increase in containers traffic, a trend that is expected to snowball with the advent of the new investors. The aim here is to make the Port, the main gateway of goods’ shipments to the Balkans. The investments will reach 180 million euros while the first priority is the completion of the 6th Pier that will double the container handling capacity.

Along with these new player, we have already established companies with a powerful and very successful presence in the sector:

El. Venizelos Airport with the Canadian leaders breaking one record after the other, regarding passenger traffic. From 2020, provided that the target of 26mio passengers is reached, major investments will be made for the expansion of the Airport Terminal, with a cost of 300mio euros.

Motorways are also managed successfully by private bodies: Hochtief in Aegean Motorway, Vinci in Rio-Antirrio Bridge and Olympia Motorway and with them, we have the big technical Groups of the country: AKTOR, TERNA, J&P AVAX, INTRAKAT that manage a dense network of high-speed, covered motorways. The concession of Egnatia Motorway is also expected soon, perhaps during 2018.

All the above players have a common interest: profit. Profit, along with Greece’s geostrategic location, can fuel the development of a sector with huge potential and great benefits for the effort of a financial recovery.

 

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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