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Victoria Mindova

All Greek ports will remain blocked on October 17 and 18 this year. This became clear after the decision of the Panhellenic Maritime Federation to announce a 48-hour strike. The union of Greek sailors, among other discontented Greek activists, decided to resort to active strike actions that will begin at six o'clock on Monday morning and will end at the same time only on Wednesday, when the nationwide strike by the union of public sector employees (ADEDY) and the union of private sector employees (GSEE) will begin.

According to the announcement of the federation, the ports may be blocked for more than 48 hours unless the government agrees to meet their requirements. They want to be excluded from the measures in the austerity programme and do not want the benefits gained so far to be cut in the name of fiscal consolidation in the country. Furthermore, they insist that the state budget continue to fund the pension insurance fund of the employees in the shipping industry and that the government assures that no jobs will be lost.

The motives for the strike by the Panhellenic Maritime Federation are similar to those of all other protesting trade unions in Greece, but their requirements are difficult to implement in practice. The restructuring of the local economy and the measures related to reducing the budget deficit require cuts in all sectors of the economy, according to the arrangements of Greece for financial aid from the European countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, the prospects for the economic reality in the euro area for 2012 are not encouraging, according to the ABN AMRO Bank data, which predicts that if European leaders do not take fast and decisive measures the debt crisis could seriously affect Italy and Spain. If these two countries begin to experience serious difficulties in paying their debts, the consequences for the euro area, the banking system and the economy would be severe, especially given that the European Financial Stability Facility is not large enough to provide them with funding in the coming years.

While Greek sailors are planning to strike and protest, shipping entrepreneurs gathered to discuss the funding problems caused by macroeconomic instability. The main conclusion of the 13^th annual forum of shipping entrepreneurs in Athens was that new investments not related to the banking system are necessary because of the stricter terms and conditions of traditional bank financing.

The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Capital Product Partner, Ioannis Lazaridis, said that bank loans to shipping companies have decreased for three consecutive years now. Lending criteria are very strict and the combination of macroeconomic difficulties and tight bank financing suggests new sources of funds. Entrepreneurs wishing to enter the stock markets today will face difficulties because of the stricter rules, say shipping entrepreneurs, and those who already have positions will be able to keep them in 2012 if they adhere to the strategies approved by investors. The segmentation of the shipping industry established in the last three years will continue next year if the companies conduct a more conservative policy and wait until the situation becomes stable.

"Next year will be even more difficult than the last three," said Carsten Wiebers who is Senior Director of Global Head Ship Finance to the German Development Bank KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH. In his opinion, due to reduced market liquidity, shipping companies are seeking short-term financing decisions, which are not always profitable for investors and come with a high price. Companies having strong liquidity in productivity over 50% will manage in 2012; those that rely more heavily on credit liquidity would be threatened by the slowing pace of the global economy. Restructuring of shipping companies is very difficult today, banks are beginning to withdraw because of the macroeconomic pressures they are feeling and alternative sources are an option, but they have higher requirements, which may include higher interest rates or even fund participation in the projects.