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Opa!
Greek lawmakers recently approved a controversial accord giving China's COSCO Pacific a 30 year concession to operate container terminals in Piraeus, Greece's largest container port. This new agreement ends a continuous series of rolling 24 hour strikes that began nearly two years ago when the center-right government unveiled plans to privatize container operations at Piraeus and Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest port.
The strikes have severely impacted container operations in Piraeus port, with traffic stagnating at 1.37 million TEUs in 2007 and then falling to 430,000 TEUs in 2008.
Under the agreement, COSCO, the world's fifth largest container port operator, has pledged to spend an additional $300 million to upgrade facilities and boost the port's annual capacity to around 3.7 million TEUs to create a leading Mediterranean transshipment hub. The hope is that COSCO will help the port return to profitability, projecting earnings will grow 60 percent over five years.
AIT's Partnership in Greece
In view of these recent industry advancements, it is vitally important that AIT has the proper representation in Greece to handle the increased logistical needs of our customers at the port of Piraeus.
AIT's partner in Greece, Delpa Shipping, meets the ever-growing demands and expectations of our customers in this particular region of the global transportation marketplace. AIT has been partnered with Delpa for the past 12 years and we are proud to say that our companies have successfully developed a solid, long term and mutually beneficial cooperation to support the logistical needs of our mutual customers throughout Greece.
Who is Delpa Shipping?
Delpa is known throughout Greece as a leader in the ocean industry and prides itself as being one of the oldest and most financially stable companies at the port of Piraeus.
Beginning as an ocean shipping company in the 1920's and 30's by the late Panos Athanassiades, Delpa has evolved into a full service logistics company offering import and export air fright, customs brokerage services and project cargo handling. Their long tradition and experience in combination with their ability to follow the ever changing challenges of the market guarantees their future competitiveness and market leadership.
Passport to Partnership: Q and A with
Kostas Atsaros, Delpa's Manager of Business Development
During a recent visit to AIT's corporate headquarters, Kostas Atsaros, Delpa's Manager of Business Development, sat down with Larry Georgen, director of AIT's global network, to discuss Atsaros' philosophy on selecting global business partners.
Larry Georgen: Given the large amount of international freight forwarders in the US, how do you determine the attractiveness of a potential international partner from such a vast group? What are the main characteristics you look for?
Kostas Atsaros: The number one characteristic I look for in an agent is integrity and honesty in their day-to-day business dealings. You must develop a partnership built on that foundation of integrity.
The second most important point to consider is whether or not our core business values correspond with one another. I frequently ask myself the following questions in selecting partners: Does their core business complement what we are looking for from a service standpoint? What services can we extend to enhance their core business competencies?
It's important that we are collectively satisfied before moving forward with our partnership.
Larry Georgen: What do you see as technology's role in supporting a global partnership?
Kostas Atsaros: Because one of the most crucial and fundamental elements of a partnership is communication, technology's role is extremely important, particularly in terms of conducting business overseas. Technology can solve the problem that distance creates.
Everything from phones, fax messages, web tracking, tracing, quoting and beyond enhances and facilitates the communications and data exchange between two international partners.
At the end of the day, logistics is more than the transportation of products - it's the transportation and dissemination of information.
Larry Georgen: How do you envision the AIT - Delpa partnership evolving in the future?
Kostas Atsaros: Essentially, I'm very happy to see that AIT and Delpa have similar visions for the future: organically advancing our business together by offering improved technology in order to bring more value to both our clients and our companies.
Larry Georgen: Our partnership has spanned more than a decade - we must be doing something right! We at AIT sincerely appreciate your partnership and trust.
Kostas Atsaros: Thank you and AIT!!
Pictured from left to right: Kostas Atsaros and Larry Georgen.
This photo was taken at AIT's headquarters location in Itasca, Illinois.
If you have any questions or comments regarding the Partner News eNewsletter,
please contact Larry Georgen, Manager Global Network. |
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