Against the background of the completion of the Haifa Port privatization procedure and the ceremony held at the port with the participation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the new owner of the port, Gautam Adani, the Union of Chambers of Commerce calls on Prime Minister Benjamin to intervene personally and act to remove all restrictions imposed on some of the seaports in Israel. In this way, to allow free and full competition that will lead to a lower cost of living in Israel.
The union claims that in order to realize the vision of sea ports in Israel and lower the cost of living, we need to move to the next stage of fully utilizing all the sea docks, including docks 7 and 8 in Haifa and docks 27 and 28 in Ashdod.
In her address to Netanyahu, Lin emphasizes that, absurdly, and despite the huge sums invested in the development of the ports, in the southern port today about a quarter of the dock stands desolate and unused. In addition, the port allows the unloading of general cargo and does not allow the unloading of bulk cargo.
“Furthermore,” Lin writes, “the authorization given for the use of these docks is for two years only. This does not allow the port to invest in heavy equipment that will speed up and optimize the unloading of ships.”
Lin claims that full utilization of all the sea docks should be allowed both for general cargo and for bulk, and fair competition should be allowed without limitations of all sea ports. “Opening up the port sector to full competition will greatly reduce costs, significantly reduce schedules and allow the country to be ready for waves of increased imports in the future. Ships will not wait weeks to unload cargo and the seaports in Israel will allow quick loading and unloading of cargo with zero delays.”