A nation of seafarers from the start

Cradle of European culture

Ancient Greece is considered the place where European culture originated. Several thousand years ago, Greece shaped European society with its achievements. Attic democracy represents the start of our political governments; philosophy, art and literature continue to be firmly established in the Germanic, Romanic and Scandinavian languages. Authors such as Homer, philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates created the first literary masterpieces of western civilization. Mathematics, natural sciences and architecture were also highly esteemed in ancient Greece and many significant technical discoveries date from this time. The ancient Greeks are even credited with inventing cranes, which changed the world of transport and logistics. 

Tourism hotspot with matching infrastructure

Greece’s Mediterranean climate, culinary specialties and millennia of history make it attractive to many tourists. A total of over 40 million tourists were recorded in 2024, making Greece one of the most frequently visited countries in the world. The Greek capital Athens alone drew eight million visitors. The tourism sector brought in more than € 28.5 billion in 2023, representing about 13 percent of the annual gross domestic product – the highest performance ever.

Greek infrastructure has advanced accordingly: the mainland has a well-developed road network of over 117,000 km, even if the quality of the roads often varies greatly between the individual regions. The situation on the Greek islands is inherently different. Most of the traffic here is handled by buses, numerous ferry connections and the many tourist airports. After all, no less than 1,308 commercial ports and 82 airports are in service to transport people and goods.

Railroad with potential

In contrast to other European countries, railroads in Greece only played a minor role as a mode of transport for many years. This was for two reasons: on the one hand, the mountainous topography of the mainland would require major investments in rail construction. On the other, many of the important tourist centers are on the islands. In the meantime, the most strategic connections are being renovated and brought back into shape while old tracks in metric gauge are being converted to standard gauge. Along the Piraeus-Thessaloniki rail line in particular, the modernization has resulted in a substantial increase in the number of passengers. Rail is now considered the fastest means of transport here.

Nonetheless, experts still see a great need for improvement, particularly in terms of freight transport. It isn’t easy to find efficient cargo terminals that facilitate transshipment and multimodal transport in Greece. The country currently only has two central terminals, in the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki. In recent years, the “Thriasio” multimodal freight depot project in Athens received a lot of attention. The project was intended to significantly improve freight transport by rail. Initially, it was scheduled for completion in 2021 and was to be located between the Port of Piraeus and Athens International Airport. Unfortunately, numerous delays and financial problems have caused the project to fall behind schedule and reach a temporary dead end. The future of the key logistics hub remains uncertain.

Electrification of the country’s main routes is not fully completed yet, either. Currently there are efforts to electrify the rail section between the Ikonio terminal in Piraeus and the Idomeni border crossing to northern Macedonia. The same is true for the route between Thessaloniki and the Kulata border crossing to Bulgaria. Expanding the infrastructure would facilitate rail freight transport through Greece, increase the tonnage of trains and at the same time it would reduce the carbon footprint.

A shipping country through and through

Greece has always been known as a shipping country – even in ancient times, they busily traded along the known sea routes. But they also left distinctive traces as colonialists in the Mediterranean. Many important Mediterranean port cities are considered ancient Greek establishments. As such, seafaring is an inextricable element of Greek identity and deeply engrained in its people’s roots. Even early on, it was obvious that Greeks would take advantage of their favorable location, along with the potential which seafaring offered to a small country. So it isn’t surprising that the Greeks have preserved their seaworthiness to this day.

But the “global era” of the Greek ship trade didn’t fully get off the ground until the end of the Second World War. Influential family businesses such as that of Aristoteles Socrates Onassis were already continuously expanding their shipping companies in 1930 with the support of the Greek state, but the end of the war clearly provided them with a significant boost.

Liberty ships give rise to ship owner dynasties

That was when Greek shipping companies were able to buy more than 100 large Liberty freighters from the United States at minimal prices. These Liberty freighters were produced by the thousands to send supplies to the allies or the many battle locations and had been operating all around the world. However, after 1945 many of them were no longer needed for military supplies. Their sale paved the way for the Greek shipping empires.

In the last 80 years, the Greek merchant fleet has continued to expand, and the shipping routes have been further developed. To date, Greek shipping companies own the most important merchant fleet in the world and are thus considered big players in the maritime trade. About 20 percent of the world’s merchant fleet and even more than a half of the European merchant fleet are owned by Greek shipping dynasties. This corresponds to a total of more than 5,500 ships and an alleged value of over 90 billion dollars. Major Greek ship owners or carriers such as Onassis, Niarchos, Livanos, Thenamaris and Maran Tankers have held and continue to hold top positions in worldwide trade. Unsurprisingly, merchant shipping thus accounts for around 7 percent of Greece’s entire economic performance and provides around 150,000 jobs.

Duel for the top spot in the Mediterranean

The port of Piraeus near Athens and the Thessaloniki port in the north are the two most important ports in the country. While the largest Greek port in terms of physical size is in Thessaloniki, Piraeus is considered the most significant logistics hub in Europe’s southeast trading area. This claim is not surprising – after all, Piraeus was already known as the historic port of Athens in antiquity. At the same time, the industrial center also marks the southern terminal of the major transport links which cross the country from Thessaloniki or Patras.

Located eight kilometers from Athens, Piraeus is now considered one of the top ports in the entire Mediterranean region. When it comes to handling containers, Piraeus had a close head-to-head race with the port of Valencia. After securing the top spot several times in a row, Valencia reclaimed the number one spot in 2023 and 2024. Piraeus loaded about 5.1 million TEU in 2023 and 4.8 million TEU in 2024. This represents a 5.8 percent decrease, primarily due to Houthi attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea.

Those who lament this decline should keep one thing in mind: More than 15 years earlier, the annual transshipment volume was only a comparatively low 433,582 TEU. Despite global economic turbulence and the situation in the Red Sea, the port aims to regain to its pole position and is consistently pursuing its investment and expansion plans. The new owners from China are expected to drive further terminal capacity and new port infrastructure.

The head of the dragon in Europe

The reason why the port of Piraeus is flourishing, of course, is that it was taken over by the Chinese. The Greek harbor was already transferred into the hands of the Chinese shipping company COSCO in 2008, even if only as a lease. Eight years after the first contract was signed, the majority of the port company followed with a 51 percent share. It may have started as a fairly sleepy port, but under the leadership of COSCO, it has rapidly risen to the top of the European harbors.

Another consequence of this is that the port of Piraeus is now used as China’s gateway to Europe. Piraeus is the first port of call for tankers or cargo ships after they have passed through the Suez Canal. From here, the goods are loaded onto other means of transport and distributed further to Eastern Europe by land. To ensure that this can be processed at top speed, a Super-Post Panamax quay crane was installed at Pier 1, which will be able to handle mega-ships with a capacity of 20,000 TEU.

Major projects in the pipeline

Business with China has long been considered the driving force behind the above-average sales of the Greek shipping industry. The port has also established itself as one of the most important hubs along the “new Silk Road.” Numerous additional Chinese expansion plans and loan financing for road and railway infrastructure projects in the Balkans should also be considered in this context. Clearly, it takes more than an efficient port to also bring the goods into the backcountry.

Time will tell whether major infrastructure projects will face further delays after the coronavirus slump. A prime example is the long-postponed Sea2Sea corridor – an electrified rail link connecting the ports of northeastern Greece with those of the Black Sea, and extending onward to the Danube. This project is considered a visionary step for combined freight transport, with the Greek section alone expected to cost around € 2.5 billion.

Another key project is the expansion of Athens International Airport, with an investment of about € 650 million. The aim is to boost capacity to 33 million passengers by 2028 and to 40 million in 2032.

What comes next remains to be seen, since: “Pantha Rhei.” Or “everything flows” – as the philosophers would say.