Ashdod port says no to new container capacity
Ashdod Port Company Ltd has written to the Israeli government to state that no new container handling facilities need building in the port for at least 15 years.
Chief executive Shuki Sagis stressed that building additional facilities would undermine the finances of the existing port company and potentially jeopardise attempts to privatise the entity in 2010.
Mr Sagis warned that the $2.5bn cost of the proposed new container terminals at both Haifa and Ashdod were not justified in the current economic climate and a simple upgrade of existing facilities would suffice for the next few years.
Under existing government plans, Haifa would have a second box terminal by 2015 and Ashdod by 2018. However, a report given to the government suggests that reform of the ports into competing entities has so far been a failure and that new private sector operators must therefore be tempted into the sector to boost competition.