"In every sector that we talk about demand is huge. For example cars - only yesterday we unloaded 1,500 Teslas but that's only part of the story," Ashdod Port CEO Shiko Zana told "Globes" correspondent Amiram Barkat at the Globes Real Estate and Infrastructures Conference today.
Zana added, "We jumped 20% in demand above every parameter you want to look at. It's been the quarter with the biggest ever docking of ships that we have ever had. The congestion in ships asking to enter the ports has already formed a real jam, or operational congestion, as we call it at the ports."
What is exactly an operational queue?
"There is indeed a long jam. 60 ships are standing outside of Haifa Bay and Ashdod port. It's a long line. We are not talking about container ships but general cargo ships with cement, wood, raw materials for construction, bulk goods and seeds - everything that is not containers and not cars.
"It's not just a problem of the State of Israel - it is a global problem in the US and in Europe the big ports are jammed. It goes back to the start of the lockdown policy, which disrupted routine. The maritime chain has a routine. Ships have their schedules and the moment that a port is closed or a factory is closed, then entire logistics chain goes into a spin."
Full disclosure: The Globes Real Estate and Infrastructures Conference was held in cooperation with Mizrahi Tefahot Bank and sponsored by: Azorim, Hershey Friedman Group, Africa Israel Residences, Gross law firm, The Fund for Encouraging and Developing the Construction Industry in Israel, the Israel Builders Association, and Ashdod Port.
