Las Vegas Sands Plans €15Bn Gambling Hub In Spain

[aa3]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8331398/Las-Vegas-Sands-plans-15bn-gambling-hub-in-Spain.html

By Jonathan Sibun

Spain's economy has been handed a welcome vote of confidence after US casino operator Las Vegas Sands revealed plans to build a €15bn (£12.6bn) Iberian gambling hub that could create as many as 180,000 jobs.

Is this part of the turn in Spain's economy. Now we're talking some real money.

A couple months back Spain also told its green energy companies and investors it won't be paying the rate it contractually agreed to for solar and wind generation. Some multinationals stand to lose basically billions of euros worth on those deals.

Greece is also showing signs of turning the corner. They made some huge deals with the Chinese state owned companies on shipping deals. The Chinese see that Greece can be used as a entry point for masses of product moving into Southeast Europe and also as a trans-shipment port to move Chinese goods into the Mediterranian countries.

The Greeks were talking about selling their ports and rail corporatiosn to the Chinese state owned companies. And the Chinese talking about expanding that infrastructure and setting up a network of warehouses and trucking points within Greece.

[interestrateripoff]

Gambling on gambling!

[OnlyMe]

Don't get the Greece hub thing. Yes they have a long history in shipping but I really can't see the advantages in sending everything to Greece and re-organizing shipments there and then forwarding (either by sea or land, just doesn't make sense to me.

[aa3]

Don't get the Greece hub thing. Yes they have a long history in shipping but I really can't see the advantages in sending everything to Greece and re-organizing shipments there and then forwarding (either by sea or land, just doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not really sure either. But I do know Singapore is very successful as a trans-shipment point. It must be in the mix of containers they send to each area. Like Algeria might not take a full container ship full of some goods. While the region as a whole might take a whole ship full.

Like possibly sending out smaller ships to Algeria.

Edit to add: One thing I do know is each nation has to build on its strengths. In the rough economic plan for the UK I said we have to build on our own strengths.. biotechnology probably the biggest potential, software, defense equipment, marketing, corporate management, finance, law, etc..

Edited February 18, 2011 by aa3

[EmmaRoid]

Don't get the Greece hub thing. Yes they have a long history in shipping but I really can't see the advantages in sending everything to Greece and re-organizing shipments there and then forwarding (either by sea or land, just doesn't make sense to me.

Must make more sense when they're selling the local assets to the Chinese as well. I have seen very large official Chinese delegations in Heraklion in the past few years. This story is not exactly 'news'.

[tim123]

Don't get the Greece hub thing. Yes they have a long history in shipping but I really can't see the advantages in sending everything to Greece and re-organizing shipments there and then forwarding (either by sea or land, just doesn't make sense to me.

Do you mean:

It doesn't make sense to do it in Greece,

or it doesn't make sense to do it, full stop?

If you are going to do it, Greece makes sense as it's the first part of mainland Europe that you get to after passing through Suez. And Greece is relatively sparsely populated so there is lots of spare land to build your new facilities. Though it will have to be a new build mega port some way out of Athens as you don't want your new container port cluttered up with a load of ferries to the islands.

Having said that, I'm not convinced that onward transfer from here by land makes sense as the infrastructure thorough N Greece/former Yugoslavia is inadequate for thousands of containers. And if you aren't going to do this then somewhere in North Africa makes more sense for your hub.

tim