Why Israeli Port Haifa Cannot Be Ignored By The World?
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Roshan Amiri
- . July 28, 2022
- . Update: July 29, 2022 1:15 pm
Israel–Haifa in Israel is becoming the new hub for Eastern Mediterranean shipping business; so much so that Asian countries are heavily investing into ports around the area. This includes India and China for starters.
Business with Israel looks good as its relations with other Gulf nations is coming to profitability after the US brokered a deal of trade for Israel and its neighbours. Now all three are vying for space- the US, India and China at Haifa ports.
Israel is an important territory for the Suez Canal where a huge number of cargo ship exchange happens throughout the year. But its expansion is also meant to solve other problems. For example, the expansion of Haifa Bay is expected to alleviate problems with congestion, after issues like Covid-19 lockdowns, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fed into a global supply chain crunch that earlier this year snarled a fifth of the global container ship fleet in ports.
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The country’s ports currently handle a total of about 3 million TEU, the standard unit for 20-foot containers. The Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) that has invested into ports here, expects this capacity to jump to 5 million TEU in 5 to 8 years, at which point Bay Port’s capacity could double to 2 million TEU, with half of the business dedicated to trans-shipment.
Everyone is betting big money on the port’s ability to handle traffic. Currently, Haifa has two ports. Both are too big to serve just Israel. It is with in mind that Israeli officials also expect the underdeveloped bay of Haifa to become a hub for trade and trans-shipment. Trans-shipment will allow Haifa to act as a point of load and unload goods to be transported to other countries.
Currently, India’s largest port developer Adani Ports and Israeli minority partner Gadot have agreed to buy Haifa Port for 4.1 billion shekels ($1.18 billion). China is already running one of the ports since 2021 beating US to the deal. President Joe Biden recently made a visit earlier this month while India had already made investments here. Indeed, Israel is becoming the epicenter for important business at sea
