Professor Alkis John Corres

Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning

Total cars produced in the world RankCountry China 16,664,502 15,523,65814,485,326 2Japan7,859,3208,554,2197,158,525 3Germany5,438,1555,388,4565,871,918 5U.S.A.4,540,9854,105,8532,966,133 4South Korea4,160,5964,167,0894,221,617 6India3,212,9883,285,4963,053,871 7Brazil2,808,0942,623,7042,534,534 11Spain1,848,8671,539,6801,819,453 9Mexico1,822,5251,810,0071,657,080 Source: According to statistics there is a trade imbalance between European Union and Far East RegionImports from FEExports to FETrade Balance EU41% 7% 34%

Car production in Europe Germany is Europe’s number one automotive market. Spain is the 2 nd largest and France is the 3 rd car manufacturer in Europe. BUT all these powerful European car manufacturers faced strong competition from non-European countries and in order to be able to survive have relocated important plants to the low salary countries of Eastern Europe. This trend is on-going and it has been rising sharply. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine host new factories for car production. Central and Eastern Europe is the factory of Europe.

Most significant car carriers UECC EUKOR Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd NYK Line “K” Line Hoegh Autoliners Neptune Orient Lines Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics BLG Automobile Logistics Kuehne + Nagel Grimaldi Lines Neptune Lines

Regional car distribution and modal split Many car importers, notably of cars from the Far East, are buying ex-works which means that they have to arrange for transportation and insurance by themselves. Seen from the viewpoint of a port car terminal, the client is the car carrier company. The car manufacturer will either make his own arrangements for his cars to reach importers in the various locations, like BMW Or.. To sign a contract with one of the global carriers to do the job for them. In this case the port which wishes to improve its car throughput needs to speak to the carrier.

The options open to a car manufacturer in principle are: Car factory Sell Ex Works Global Car Distribution Companies Importer A C B

The major Car Terminals around the Med and the Black Sea Mediterranean Spain (Valencia, Barcelona) France (Marseille, Fos sur Mer) Italy (Livorno, Gioia Tauro, Salerno, Monfalcone, Palermo Civitavecchia) Slovenia (Koper) Greece (Piraeus) Turkey ( Derince, Izmir, Gulf of Izmit, Samsun) Egypt (Alexandria, Port Said) Black Sea Bulgaria (Burgas) Romania (Constanta) Ukraine (Odessa) Russia (Novorossyisk) Georgia (Batumi) Turkey (Derince, Samsun)

Piraeus Car Terminal

The pre-crisis trend until 2007 was quite healthy. In 2008, the crisis year, there was a decline and the next year the movements decreased by almost 50%. The EU economic austerity policy has caused an extreme decline of car imports to the Greek market but it has also affected the transit volumes. 2014: 359,665 movements

Piraeus Railway connection Insofar the car terminal of the port of Piraeus has relied solely on transshipment for its transit car business in absence of an access to the railway network. Only a small part of new cars moved on trucks fitted for car transportation which is uneconomical for international transport.

There are three international rail services run by Trainose in the north and northeastern parts of Greece. Line 1: Athens-Thessaloniki-Skopje-Belgrade Line 2: Athens-Thessaloniki-Sofia-Bucharest, and Line 3: Athens-Thessaloniki-Istanbul Therefore the countries that are related directly to Greece are Bulgaria, Romania, FYROM, Turkey and Serbia. The railway network of Trainose does not presently extend to Albania.

The domestic railway network is rather basic.

One wonders which of the neighbouring countries would be the most likely to be served with the new railway connection of the Piraeus car terminal? Albania, in absence of a railway link, could only be served by trucks. FYROM is probably the best candidate. This new state not only is landlocked, but also devoid of rail connections with Bulgaria and Albania. Kosovo is also landlocked and in many ways in a similar situation to FYROM making it a good candidate. Serbia might also benefit from using Piraeus as a sourcing port for car imports. Bulgaria, although it has Burgas and Varna in the Black Sea, its capital Sofia is closer to the Greek border. Trainose services could be the choice because shipping out of the Mediterranean into the Black Sea can be quite expensive and time consuming. Romania is quite far, yet the existence of a regular Trainose service to Bucarest could be useful in way of Romanian exports and really valuable as return cargoes.

However… The Greek railway network is not fully developed and also faces problems of infrastructure. The cost of railway car transport in the Balkan states has not been calculated and verified yet. The inter- Balkan railway transport involves the use of other national railway networks and this may limit the effectiveness of promotional pricing. Last but not least, the state-owned company Trainose may be privatized.

Until then… cars represent the world’s number 2 export product. The country that produces the biggest volume of cars is China, 1 out of 4 cars produced in the world comes from China. Of the top 10 car producing countries EU producers account for 46.2 % of the total value compared with 21.7% produced in the Far East. Regarding Greece and Piraeus Car Terminal special attention should be given to Central and Eastern Europe due to proximity and the plants that work and export from this area.

What are the options of Piraeus Car terminal? Option One: Do nothing. The Piraeus Port Authority can continue collecting the modest transit fees on car movements, as very little is earned from transit car storage. A very poor choice in our opinion. Option Two : Enter in car logistics. Engage itself in car distribution through the creation of a specialized unit. This may be a little ambitious in view of limited experience. Option Three: Enter into synergies to capitalize on its geographical role. This may be the way ahead.

The port of Piraeus can become an important hub for car transportation. Once the status and the role of PPA S.A. has been clarified Piraeus car terminal can be an important hub of car distribution in Eastern Mediterranean. PPA S.A. not only has a good geographical location and a direct link to the train networks of Europe... but also decades of expertise in car handling, spare car parking space and a sophisticated computer system which can incorporate advanced car logistics software fairly quickly. As logistics operate in networks PPA ought to be in position to identify potential partners and join forces.

Thank you for your attention!