Arian Maritime S.A., being a proud Member of our Network, would like to thank you all for your cooperation and support during the really tough 2-quarters of 2020!

Although the unexpected COVID-19 situation has affected their business and way of planning forward and although it has forced all of us to cancel or postpone meetings this year, we are absolutely certain that most of us try to conduct business, increase share, rationalize expenses as hard as possible until the day of “re-union” comes.

In this respect and in order to be up-dated, we would like to send you a short feedback of our market and service scope.

Greek Ports

Piraeus port is in full operation and apart from the regulated health and pre-caution measures, there is no change in its speed and volume capacity.

There are some improvements in the paperless procedures expanding and an effort for simplifying the process for the water clerks, the agents, the custom Brokers and the port’s staff.

Since the majority of the cargo uses the Customs Stations which are based inside or very close to the port, the Custom Stations themselves are forced to follow port’s rules and fast pace.

Thessaloniki port is also in full operation.

This port is under a serious re-structure plan for the past 2 years (since its privatization). The new management is trying hard to implement changes that will increase its capacity and improve its outlook with a steady growth factor.

A series of ground works is in constant progress, a new pier is underway, new system of “gate in/out” process is under trial and a rationalization of, previously un-used or badly used, space is already done.

Since this port apart from serving a great deal of Greek exports is also the main gate port for South-West Bulgaria , North Macedonia & South Serbia , there is already a “simplified” T1 procedure scheme and competitive land connectivity with improved highways, specialized Border stations & depots.

The affection of the COVID-19 is observed mainly on the border stations since different countries have different measures and we have observed delays in some periods during these past 4 months.

The port itself or its operation for the domestic cargo is not seriously affected.

Road Freight

Although March-April was a tough period because of many border crossings and facing different country rules, apart from delays, there is no serious operational problems.

Our respected Shippers/Receivers just need to calculate 1-2 extra days in order to be at safe side.

Air Freight

Although the airfreight cost is seriously affected because of the huge decrease in commercial flights and freight rates are much higher than the pro-crisis levels, we observe a gradual improvement after the first shock. For sure the situation is not back to normal ...but at least there is some connectivity after a long period of lock-down. This is the transport sector which is affected the most.