Friday, May 12th
Today was all about shipping so we visited DP World and Eurogate which are leaders of the shipping industry in Cyprus and Europe. DP World has one of the largest ports in Cyprus and is responsible for a significant portion of incoming and outgoing ships. They were established in 1973 after the port in Famagusta was taken over by the Turks. DP World is a global company which is based in Dubai and has expanded hugely into Asia and the Americas. In order to have global reach, they have many ports and terminals located in the European region, with the largest port in London. Since they have so much connection to the people of Cyprus, they try to support local projects that help improve the industry. For example, the Cyprus Regional Energy Program and the DP World Global Education Program. It is so important for large companies like DP World to use their power to help the people they serve.
One thing that surprised me was that in Cyprus, DP World only has 75 staff members. This seems like an incredibly small number considering the size of the port and all of the different roles that need to be filled. DP World says that they hire based on efficiency and drive which allows them to have a very efficient staff and they have no need to have more people on their team. Another thing I found very interesting about the shipping industry as a whole is that the company itself does not own the port and they are actually contracted to run the port. DP World in particular, has a 25 year concession agreement with the Republic of Cyprus which means that after 25 years, the government of Cyprus can reevaluate who they want to run the port. Many times they will keep the same company if the port is doing well, but they could decide to end the contract and hire a new company. This would cause DP World to lose one of its major port locations and many of their staff would be out of work. This is also true for the other company we visited, Eurogate.
Eurogate is another company with a large port located in Limassol. Unlike DP World, they deal almost entirely with cargo ships and shipping containers. This type of port is very different from DP World and requires large amounts of heavy machinery and equipment to be efficient. The Eurogate port handles around 90 percent of goods that come into and out of Cyprus and their handling capacity is around 500,000 TEU. In Cyprus, they have 198 employees who do everything from vessel and truck operation to storage and organization. The company focuses greatly on decreasing the time to deliver containers and they are constantly working to improve their technology for this process. Similar to DP World, Eurogate also uses its impact for good by doing charity outreach and supporting sustainability initiatives. Overall, I am basically an expert in the shipping industry now and I will be accepting job offers at the earliest convenience.
