Chinese company SIPG (Shanghai International Port Group) will start to operate the new NIS 3.98 billion Bay Port in Haifa only in about two months' time, but "Globes" has learned that as part of the port's running in, a first shipped docked there yesterday evening for a trial run of the equipment. The ship is the MSC Marylena, which will be loaded with some 1,500 empty containers, to be transported to Turkey. This will accomplish two aims: operation of the new equipment at the port that will complete with Haifa Port, and removal of empty containers, tens of thousands of which have been "parked" in Israel for a long time because of the coronavirus pandemic and the imbalance that it has caused in international shipping.
Bay Port is one of two new private ports scheduled to open this year in accordance with the 25-year concessions that their operators have received from the State of Israel. Besides the element of competition that these ports are meant to bring to the economy, there is an expectation that they will put an end to the "traffic jam" of ships that sometimes wait for days outside the existing ports, particularly Ashdod Port, which currently has 25 ships anchored off it.
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