By A. Tsimplakis
[email protected]
A burgeoning consortium that reportedly includes Greece-based Goldair, along with the US transport multinational SSA Marine and the Black Summit Financial Group investment fund, is expected to vie for three regional port concessions up for grabs in an international tender, and specifically for the port authorities of Alexandroupolis, Kavala and Volos.
US interest is long-standing for Alexandroupolis, in extreme northeast Greece, only a few kilometers west of the land border with Turkey and on a looming transit axis for natural gas and LNG, although both Kavala, also in northern Greece, and Volos, on the eastern seaboard of the Greek mainland, have piqued the interest of American interests.
US diplomats, including the American ambassador in the east Mediterranean country, have repeatedly visited the three port cities over recent years, with favorable statements over their geo-strategic importance also uttered.
SSA Marine is billed as transporting more than 14 million teu in cargo every year.
Goldair's top executives met last week at the US embassy in Athens with ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, with talks reportedly focusing directly on the prospect of a three-company consortium to vie for the port concessions.
