Athens: George Xiradakis, the boss of Greek ship finance specialists XRTC speaks to our sister site Maritime CEO. XRTC has been behind many of the ship finance deals between Chinese banks and Greek owners and was with the Greek prime minister on last month’s busy ship shopping spree to China. On China’s grasp of ship finance Xiradakis is adamant that there is no great difference any more in terms of the sophistication of offerings from the People’s Republic compared to the West.
“The numerous gaps of the past decade have largely been bridged,” he said. The experience factor of the banks in the international shipping arena is a continuous "minus" for them, he admitted, but they are making tremendous efforts to catch up.
“The Chinese picture is changing tremendously fast and we can safely state that all gaps will be filled up,” Xiradakis maintained. “The real power of the Chinese market is the liquidity capacity and government's appetite to support the Chinese newbuilding industry.”
For the full interview, including full exclusive details of the Greek orderbook in China click here. [04/06/13]
