Israel Port Congestion Could Cost Billions

Israel must urgently increase its port capacity, especially for the new large container ships of 15,000 TEU, according to a news report from Globes, Israel’s Business Arena.
   
400 of these ships are due to come into service in the coming years, but Ashdod Port Company and Haifa Port Company cannot handle anything larger than a 9,000 TEU container ship, Shipping and Ports Authority director general Captain Yigal Maor is reported to say. He describes the situation as a maritime blockade that will see Israel cut from major shipping routes with imports and exports handled via feeder lines or via transit through large eastern Mediterranean ports such as Piraeus in Greece and Port Said in Egypt. This will raise the price of transported goods by average of $300 per standard container (TEU). Feeder lines already handle 700,000 TEU a year, raising the price of goods by NIS 1 billion.

A study that Maor presented at a conference of the Marine Transport Users Association in Israel states that the situation will get worse. Data cross-referenced by three leading maritime research companies indicate that container traffic in the east Mediterranean is projected to rise to 10 million TEU by 2020, while ports' capacity will only reach 8 million TEU. By 2017, the resulting congestion will force ships to unload at more remote locations.

The forecasts are optimistic as they assume that new ports at Ashdod and Haifa, each of which are supposed to increase handling capacity by 1.1 million TEU, will begin operating in 2018 and 2020. This is not expected to be the case.