How Chinese Investment Made Piraeus Port a Global Hub

Just a decade ago, Greece’s Piraeus Port was a struggling, aging facility on the margins of Mediterranean shipping—its equipment outdated, its operations inefficient, and its international clients vanishing. Today, it ranks among the world’s top 25 container ports, handling over 5.6 million TEU annually and serving as a cornerstone of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Europe. The transformation, driven by Chinese shipping giant COSCO, is one of the most dramatic turnaround stories in modern maritime history.

From Decline to Rebirth

Located just 10 kilometers southwest of Athens in the Saronic Gulf, Piraeus is one of the world’s oldest ports. Its Greek name, meaning “the place that guards the passage,” reflects its strategic position at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Yet by the early 2010s, the port had fallen into severe decline. Aging infrastructure, lagging management, and the broader impact of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis had driven away international shipping lines, leaving the port an industrial backwater.

That began to change in 2009, when COSCO Shipping secured a 35-year concession to operate two container terminals at Piraeus. In 2016, as Greece was emerging from its debt crisis, COSCO acquired a 51% majority stake in Piraeus Port Authority S.A. (OLP) for €293.7 million, formally taking over port operations. By 2021, the company had increased its stake to 67%, a move approved by the Greek Court of Audit despite some delays in COSCO’s mandatory €300 million investment program, as GreekReporter reported at the time.

A Decade of Transformation

Over the past ten years, COSCO has invested over 10 billion RMB (approximately €1.3 billion) in Greece, according to a feature article published by People’s Daily on June 3, 2026. The results have been remarkable. Annual container throughput has surged from approximately 3.74 million TEU—ranked 93rd globally in 2016—to over 5.6 million TEU, reaching as high as 25th place worldwide. In 2025, Piraeus ranked 8th in the prestigious Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index.

The port now operates six core business segments: container shipping, cruise, ferry, car roll-on/roll-off, logistics and warehousing, and ship repair and shipbuilding. The cruise terminal attracts nearly 1.8 million international visitors annually, ranking among the top 10 home ports globally and top 3 in the Mediterranean. Annual ferry passenger volume exceeds 18 million.

Perhaps most significantly, the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line—built on Piraeus’s hub advantages—now connects nine European countries through over 1,500 service points, reaching 71 million people. This creates an alternative trade corridor from the Mediterranean into Central and Eastern Europe, bypassing traditional northern European routes.

Voices From the Transformation

The People’s Daily article, published during the Posidonia 2026 international maritime exhibition in Athens, features extensive quotes from Greek officials and workers who have witnessed the transformation firsthand. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the COSCO/Piraeus Port Authority booth at the exhibition, praising the port’s development and COSCO’s contributions, as confirmed by local Greek news outlet PireasNow.

Savvas Sanozidis, Board Secretary of Piraeus Port Authority with nearly 20 years of experience, told People’s Daily: “Chinese enterprises have both holistic thinking and pragmatic strategies. In a very short time, they completed the comprehensive promotion of port upgrading and modernized operations. Without exaggeration, this is nothing less than a ‘rebirth’ of Piraeus Port, and COSCO Shipping deserves the credit.”

Marinos Aravozos, a dockmaster at the COSCO ship repair dock, described the impact on local workers: “Before COSCO took over, only 5 employees were left handling ship docking operations at the dock. Now there are 13. Some people in the team used to only make a living by doing odd jobs in restaurants and motorcycle shops. Now COSCO gives them stable jobs, giving them the capital to start a family.”

Yannis Moralis, the Mayor of Piraeus, emphasized the broader social impact: “Sino-Greek cooperation has changed not only the face of a port, but also reshaped the city’s development pattern and the living conditions of its people.”

Geopolitical Dimensions

Piraeus’s success has not gone unnoticed on the global stage—and not all attention has been welcome. The port’s status as a flagship BRI project has drawn scrutiny from Washington. In November 2025, the US Ambassador to Greece reportedly suggested exploring ways to reduce Chinese influence at Piraeus, proposing American infrastructure development at other Greek ports as a counterbalance.

The Global Times responded with a pointed editorial, arguing that “Washington’s goal is not to promote Greece’s prosperity but to squeeze out China by ‘replacing’ Chinese investment and forcing countries into a binary choice.” The editorial framed the Piraeus story as “a textbook example of successful international cooperation” and warned against zero-sum thinking in global infrastructure development.

Meanwhile, COSCO’s broader European presence continues to grow. The company holds stakes in over a dozen European ports and has also acquired TrainOSE, the Greek railway operator, building an integrated sea-rail logistics network connecting Piraeus to the Balkans and Central Europe. PortSEurope reported in April 2026 that COSCO Shipping Ports’ total container throughput rose 8.9% year-on-year to 38.9 million TEU in the first quarter of 2026, with equity throughput up 7.5% to 11.9 million TEU.

What’s Next for Piraeus

As Piraeus marks a decade under COSCO management, the port continues to evolve. In April 2026, the COSCO Shipping Piraeus Park project was launched—a modern sports, leisure, and social center for the local community. The port’s master plan calls for further investments in green technology and digitalization.

Chinese Ambassador to Greece Fang Qiu struck an optimistic note in the People’s Daily article: “In the future, relying on the continuously upgraded port hub capacity, the ever-improving industrial ecology, and the deeply integrated people-to-people bonds, Piraeus Port will continue to deepen its presence in the Mediterranean, radiate to the Eurasian continent, and continue to write a new chapter of mutual benefit and joint progress.”

Yet challenges remain. The EU has been developing tools to review foreign investments in strategic infrastructure, and questions persist about labor conditions and environmental impacts of the port’s expansion. The US-backed development of alternative Greek ports could introduce new competitive dynamics.

What is clear is that Piraeus’s journey from a “corner of the Mediterranean” to a global shipping hub represents one of the most tangible success stories of international infrastructure cooperation in the 21st century—and a case study in how Chinese investment is reshaping global trade patterns, for better or worse.