The Haifa port in Israel is planning to double its container and liquid bulk handling capacities within the next two and half years to meet growing demand, the chairman of the port said on Monday.
The port, which is located in eastern Mediterranean, is currently handling 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers and about 2.5 million tonnes of bulk liquid a year, David Hermesh told Reuters on the sidelines of a Houston shipping conference.
"Haifa is one of the top 10 ports in the Middle East, and the traffic flow between the US and Haifa is growing," Hermesh said, adding that Zim Israel Navigation Company is responsible for the bulk of the container traffic flow. Zim operates a fleet of about 100 vessels, with a total vessel capacity of over 240,000 TEUs.
Apart from port expansion, Haifa port is also stepping up its maritime security to keep abreast with the heightened container shipping requirements in the US Hermesh said that Haifa will add a new container scanner soon, bringing the total number of scanners operating at the port to two. The scanners will examine the containers for suspicious materials.
"The extra scanner will also expedite the container flow through the port," in additional to a higher level of security, he said. In July last year, the British Chamber of Shipping declared the coasts of Lebanon and Israel a war zone due to a conflict involving Israel and Hizbollah militants operating in Lebanon.
As a result of the declaration, British seafarers sailing to that area received a war bonus. Hermesh said that port operations at Haifa have returned to normal last year. The 25th IAPH World Port Conference began on Monday and ends on Friday.