Star Bulk CEO Petros Pappas during a discussion in the 1st Conference of the Hellenic Shipyards Association stressed the importance of the renaissance of the shipbuilding industry.
He revealed that his company already has cooperation with the shipyards of Syros and Elefsis regarding repairs that until recently were carried out in other countries. “We have brought around 25 ships in the last 3.5 years. In the past we were forced to take them to Turkey because we had no other choice. Now the money stays in Greece,” he said.
Pappas emphasized that Greek shipyards are competitive in the West, giving as an example a ship of his own that needed repairs and eventually went to Poland. “A few years ago, Polish shipyards were the cheapest in Europe. Now we saw that the repair there cost us two and a half times more in money and time compared to Elefsis or Syros,” he noted.
The CEO of Star Bulk estimated that there will be other agreements with coastal carriers and Greek shipyards as the large 1 billion euro agreement recently signed by Attica Group with ONEX. In fact, as he said, Greece will attract ocean liners from other countries as the shipyards are highly competitive.
Regarding his own company he noted: “We go wherever our customers go, but if we have ships for repair in the Mediterranean we now choose Greece.”
The renaissance of the shipyards is also important for the Greek economy, Pappas also said, stressing that our country has hundreds of engineers and thousands of technicians.
