Israel defers ports privatisation

The port is not encumbered by locks meaning Panamax size vessels can sail in and out at all levels of the tide. This rate of handling at the new terminal is now more than double the average number of lifts being achieved in 2003 at the previously congested Teesport Terminal 1. On 14th February TCT2 recorded 53.1 moves per hour, whilst overall the terminal averaged 33 lifts per hour for the past month – an increase of 57% on the February 2003 average of 21 lifts per hour.

A new formula being discussed is to spin each of the three ports off as independent state companies over a prolonged period, initially then operating as semiautonomous units reporting to the ports authority, which would retain its current powers. Indeed, the ports authority has announced that it is to resume its policy of sourcing external finance, hoping to raise $200m over the next three years.

Standard & Poor’s credit rating of either A+ or A- is the same as that of the state of Israel and is therefore the highest rating it could have been given. Nevertheless, external funding sources will not be tapped unless talks with the workforce are successfully concluded and structural changes at the ports implemented. The former looks unlikely in the near term, given that the finance ministry has stopped pay increases of 4%-10% to certain workers following a failure to implement agreed efficiency incentives, which included a change in shift patterns.