Skaramagas

Greece's revitalized shipbuilding industry will be prominently represented during Posidonia 2024, signaling a strong recovery following decades of decline and disrepair.

Slowly but surely, ship numbers and the volume of ship repair work in Greece are increasing, creating expectations that the country can once again become the ship repair hub of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The development of this activity by Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) as well as ONEX Neorion Shipyards (Syros), and at the Elefsis and Skaramangas shipyards, is evident.

The Greek shipbuilding industry appears ready to write a new chapter in its history after the completion of the consolidation of its three major shipbuilding units (Elefsis, Skaramangas and Syros) and the increase in activity at other units, such as those that are based in Salamina, Perama and Halkida.

The Hellenic Public Properties Company (ETAD) on Wednesday announced the completion of the sale of the state property at the Skaramangas Shipyards to the new investor, Milina Enterprises Company Limited, owned by George Procopiou.

The compensation process for approximately 750 workers at the Skaramangas Shipyards by the company's special administrator has gathered pace and, once concluded, will represent the final step ahead of the delivery of the shipyards without any obligations to the group of George Prokopiou.

In the next few weeks, probably within February, a new announcement will be issued for the sale of Skaramangas Shipyards, both by the company's administrator and the Hellenic Public Properties Company (ETAD).

The two tenders that will run in parallel follow the previous, inconclusive process whose failure is attributed to ETAD's "maximalistic" original approach to the asking price.

The European Court has fined Athens 10 million euros - plus another 7 million euros every six months until compliance - for the state's failure to recoup the state subsidy granted to Hellenic Shipyards SA (ENAE), the company which operates the Skaramangas shipyard.

The support of the American business community for Greece is being underscored by the plethora of deals revealed in the context of the ongoing 83rd Thessaloniki International Fair, where the United States is the country of honor.

ONEX Shipyards of Greek-American entrepreneur Panos Xenocostas has expressed an interest in the acquisition of the two main Attica shipyards at Skaramangas and Elefsina.

The European Court of Justice's advocate general, Melchior Wathelet, has recommended that Greece be fined 13 million euros over Skaramangas Shipyards (ENAE).

Wathelet said Greece had failed to comply with a previous ruling by the court ordering it to reclaim subsidies to the previously state-owned shipyard west of Athens worth 670 million euros, with late fees.