Cosco Bypasses Railway Strike by Sea Route
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Cosco has decided to transfer its containers to the port of Koper in Slovenia from Piraeus in order to deal with the Greek railway strikes.
Cosco has got around the problem created for its freight forwarding network by Greek railway workers’ ongoing strike action by sending its containers by sea from Piraeus to Koper in Slovenia, from where they are loaded onto trains for the next part of their journey, reports Kathimerini.
Since the tariffs for small feeder ships are currently at very low levels, the Chinese company will be able to bypass the central Greek railway axis without major losses in competitiveness.
This alternative route is part of a plan created by Cosco’s subsidiary in Greece Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) SA, in order to tackle any threats against its smooth operation, as part of the business continuity planning, which has been developed and is currently being implemented.
Another alternative in the plan provides for the road transport of containers from Piraeus to Greece’s northern border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where they would be loaded onto trains to continue on their way to Central Europe.