Another Israeli record broken with the arrival of the 8900 TEU container vessel MSC ARICA to the port of Haifa, as part of the Golden Gate Service
MSC ARICA with a 8900 TEU capacity is the largest container ship ever to have visited Israel. It's also the widest – 19 containers across the deck – which stretches the limits of the 6 STS cranes at the Carmel terminal to the limit.
The ARICA arrived at Haifa Port late Monday morning as part of the recently launched vessel's maiden voyage.
This is the second vessel plying the MSC global route, to visit Haifa in recent weeks.
The GOLDEN GATE SERVICE, a service that starts in ports in China, Singapore and Salalah in Oman and then passes directly through the Suez Canal on its way to New York with only one stop – Haifa Port.
Vessels on this route are expected to carry lots of imports for Israel and exports to the United States and also many containers for transshipment, containers whose final destination are the various ports of the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and the Black Sea.
Relative to the first docking some 10 days ago, the number of containers loaded and unloaded rose by 35% and reached a new height of 1450 containers for import, export and transshipment. Once again, the operational standards shown by Haifa Port employees were impressive at 40 containers per crane hour for each of the four cranes allocated to the ARICA allowing the vessel to continue its 11 day journey to the East Coast of the United States in just two shifts.
The largest vessel on this route, the MSC CHICAGO carrying 9200 TEU is due to dock at Haifa Port in just three weeks.
Mendy Zaltzman, CEO if Haifa Port: "Everything we've done over the past few years was in preparation for vessels such as these. We built a new, deep water terminal, installed the best equipment in the world including the NAVIS N4 TOS system, the best of its kind in the world. Recently, we also purchased a new tub boat, the largest in Israel. Additionally, the port's employees have a deep commitment which results in their high output. We are ready now for more challenges".
