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Israel has opened a new shipping port along its Mediterranean coast that will bring much needed competition to a sector plagued by delays and boost the country’s standing as a regional trade hub.<\/p>\n
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The 5.5 billion shekel ($1.7 billion) Bay Port at Haifa, which will be operated by Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), will enable larger classes of cargo ships, carrying 18,000 containers or more, to dock in Israel.<\/p>\n
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The country is selling its state-owned ports and building new private docks in an effort bring down costs and cut above-average wait times for vessels to unload. About 99% of all goods move in and out of Israel over sea and an upgrade is needed to maintain economic growth.<\/p>\n
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Warming ties with neighboring Arab countries are also creating new trade opportunities for Israel and Haifa is well placed to become a regional hub.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I’m sure we can leverage this opportunity not just for local prosperity, but for realizing opportunities and making a real contribution to our neighbors in the Middle East,” Transport Minister Merav Michaeli said in a statement after the port was inaugurated in a low-key ceremony on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Another new port on the Mediterranean coast is due to open in Ashdod by the end of the year, to be operated Swiss-based Terminal Investment Limited.<\/p>\n
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($1 = 3.2045 shekels)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mike Harrison)<\/em><\/p>\n maritime professional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Israel has opened a new shipping port along its Mediterranean coast that will bring much needed competition to a sector plagued by delays and boost the country’s standing as a regional trade hub. The 5.5 billion shekel ($1.7 billion) Bay Port at Haifa, which will be operated by Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), will enable …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[15664,4126,6606,2118,953],"class_list":["post-27936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news","tag-chineseoperated","tag-haifa","tag-israel","tag-opens","tag-port"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/27937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}