ISRAEL urgently needs to increase its ports' capacity to handle the new large containerships of 15,000 TEU, with 400 of such vessels due to come into service in the coming years, reports Israeli business portal Globes-online.
But today's Ashdod Port and Haifa Port facilities cannot handle anything larger than a 9,000-TEU ship, a situation which the Shipping and Ports Authority director general Captain Yigal Maor described as a "maritime blockade."
Capt Maor said Israel will be cut off from major shipping routes in a few years, and imports and exports will have to be handled via feeder lines to Piraeus and Port Said, raising costs.
The need to use feeder lines will raise the cost to importers and exporters by an average of US$300 per TEU, compared with direct shipping, he said. Feeder lines already handle 700,000 TEU a year for Israel, increasing the price of goods by ILS1 billion (US$286.9 million).
Capt Maor also said that the situation will be worse than expected. Data cross-referenced by three leading maritime research companies are worrying: container traffic in the east Med is projected to rise to 10 million TEU by 2020, while ports' capacity will only reach eight million TEU.
By 2017, the region's ports will be operating at a nominal capacity of 136 per cent, creating monumental congestion, forcing ships to unload at more remote locations in the central and western Med.
But these forecasts are over-optimistic, he said. The researchers 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. In practice, one port will be operational in 2019 in the best case, he said.
The situation is exacerbated by the situation in Egypt, where plans to expand Port Said's port capacity by 5.5 million TEU have been frozen because Arab Spring civil strife. "The masses who thronged Tahrir Square screwed our imports and exports," said Capt Maor.
PORTS
20 January 2014 - 22:24
Israel needs bigger ports for mega ships and avoid port congestion
ISRAEL urgently needs to increase its ports' capacity to handle the new large containerships of 15,000 TEU, with 400 of such vessels due to come into service in the coming years, reports Israeli business portal Globes-online.
PORTS
20 January 2014 - 22:24
Israel needs bigger ports for mega ships and avoid port congestion
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