May.30--Container traffic soars in first quarter 2012, putting port authority in the black after first quarter loss last year.Piraeus Port Authority swung to a 185,400-euro ($231,250) pretax profit in first quarter 2012 from a 2.94 million-euro ($3.7 million) loss a year ago, reporting a sharp increase in container traffic at the port, Greece’s largest.
    Revenue grew 5.3 percent to $30 million, and there was a $652,500 profit after tax, compared with a $4.1 million loss in the first three months of 2011.
    The port authority’s Pier 1 container terminal handled 166,000 20-foot equivalents units in the quarter, a 46 percent increase on 113,990 TEUs a year earlier.
    The Greek government plans to sell its 74.5 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority this year as part of the privatization program to reduce the country‘s bloated public debt.
    The port’s Pier 11 container terminal, operated by China’s Cosco Pacific, reported a boost in traffic in the first four months of the year, to 679,600 TEUs from 267,500 TEUs in the same period in 2011.
    Hong Kong-based Cosco, which paid around $5 billion for a 35-year operating concession in 2008, plans to build a new container terminal as part of a plan to transform Piraeus into a 3.7 million TEU-a-year transshipment hub for Chinese exports to Europe.

(Source:JOC)