Port of Thessaloniki

Abstract

The Port of Thessaloniki is the second biggest port in Greece after Piraeus. Located in the Northern part of the country, it has a large hinterland above it, the Balkan Peninsula, which renders the Port a transit one. It is naturally protected from winds and waves and it is the best alternative for vessels coming from the Suez Canal and heading towards the Balkans. Competition though is intense in the Adriatic and the Black Sea especially due to the container industry booming as well as the concession of several container terminals in the region to international stevedoring companies. The Port of Thessaloniki seems to be at the moment the leading spoke port in the region. In order thus to maintain this leading position, a proper Masterplan is required, something that has been missing for the last years. This Thesis is the result of an effort to create such a port planning. An inventory of the present situation of the Port was conducted taking into account elements like dry and wet infrastructure, road and rail networks, connections with the regional and national transport networks as well as waterside and landside handling equipment using methods like the queuing theory. These figures were compared to the present cargo and passenger throughput in order to depict deficiencies, lacks and surpluses per terminal. The future needs were then demonstrated based on forecasts. These forecasts were the combination of the extrapolation of past data, the consideration of several transport trends (containerization, liquefied natural gas) as well as the insight in the financial situation of the Balkan countries that constitute the potential customers of the Port. Three different growth scenarios were assumed while the 28-years duration of the Masterplan was divided into three periods (2008-2015-2025-2035). Having these needs as a base, eight alternatives were generated. A multi criteria analysis was then used in order to end up with the three most promising alternatives; the validity of this analysis was verified by five sensitivity checks which demonstrated similar results. Finally an ideal port layout was chosen which was accompanied by the respective construction phasing. The present Thesis was meant to fill a gap; that of the lack of a Masterplan. Fortunately, it can be concluded that the present condition of the Port is adequate for the current cargo and passenger throughput which shows that the rough planning that has been implemented by the consequent authorities until now was successful. Moreover, from now and on, a Masterplan should be considered as mandatory and the present Thesis comprises the ideal blueprint for this. In order to render this report more realistic though, regular updates shall be conducted almost every five years while the forecasts shall be checked and readjusted continuously.