Further to our update of 7th February 2017 on the privatisation of Limassol Port, the latest information on the situation is as follows:
On 9th February 2017, EuroGate (the majority owner of the new terminal operator) announced that it would not charge for storage from the day it took over the container terminal on 29th January, until 19th February 2017. It has been reported by the local press that the new operator is also seriously looking at the new increased non-regulated tariffs they have imposed, and are revaluating these. It stated that the productivity of the terminal is already better and will continue to improve.
Custom agents gathered at 08.00am on 8th February 2017 outside the entrance to the container terminal to strike. However, following assurances from EuroGate that their demands would be satisfied, they terminated the strike at around noon the same day.
In addition, the lorry drivers who held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday 8thFebruary, and were expected to end that meeting with a decision to strike, decided to give the new operators of the terminal more time to resolve the delays and new procedural issues.
Although in both the above cases the strike situation was dealt with, the threat of strike is still high.
The Minister of Transport, Marios Demetriades, is monitoring the situation closely and has asked all those concerned for more time to straighten out some of the issues that have arisen upon the hand-over of the port to private hands.
