Israel's new private port marked the entry of the first ship

Following 12 years of negotiations Israel marked the entry of the first ship, a cargo vessel carrying 9,000 tons of Brazilian sugar to Israel Shipyards port, its first private port
 
Israel Shipyards Ltd. owner Shlomo Shmeltzer said during a ceremony that
"Israel Shipyards will propose to the Jordanian king that the Israel Shipyards port become a joint Israeli-Jordanian port".
 
Shlomi Fogel, chairman of Ampa Investments Ltd. one of the owners of the port, said that the management of the port would like to turn the port into a storage and distribution hub to Middle East customers. Fogel added that the coming months will see the arrival of additional ships carrying a total of 200,000 tons of raw sugar.
 
He added that the company also intends to import processed sugar and store it in the port and market it both locally and to traders in Egypt and Jordan.
 
He also expects the port to handle ships carrying cargoes containing sunflower seeds, as well as ships en-route to Jordan, and Jordanian merchandise destined for Europe.
 
Israel Shipyards currently employs 350-500 people but the company expect to recruit many more workers due to wider range of services the company would offer.