The new "Eitan" port facility, north of Ashdod port, was inaugurated on August 2 in the presence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Transport Minister Shitrit and Finance Minster Netanyahu and 3,500 representatives of the private and public sectors.
The Eitan port facility named after Former IDF Chief Rafael Eitan drowns [while working] in Ashdod Port, has been constructed integrating Israel’s first fully computerized Terminal Operation System (TOS) for loading and unloading shipping containers.
The new NIS 3 billions port facility is one of Israel’s biggest infrastructure projects in the last decade. It will increase the storage capacity of the Ashdod Port by 250% and is expected to decrease ships wait-times by 70%, from 15.3 hours to four hours by the end of the year.
The Ashdod Port Company which will operate the new port expects to handle 50% of Israel’s port traffic in the coming years, surpassing Haifa as Israel’s main port facility. With the start of operations at the Eitan Port docks, Ashdod Port has truly entered an exciting new era.
PM Sharon said "I congratulate the Ashdod Port Company - for completing the first phase of building the Port. The fact that a woman today heads the company - Chairperson of the Directorate, Ms. Iris Stark - is one of the special signs of the new era in the port. Congratulations and special thanks to the workers, without whom even the most advanced state-of-the-art harbor, would be nothing more than a wasteland of concrete and metal".
Finance Minster Netanyahu thanked the port workers and added that the workers at Ashdod Port were unquestionably the port's greatest asset. Transport Minister Shitrit said that his office would continue to improve port services and invest in the new Eitan port as well as in Haifa.
Mrs. Stark port chairman said that "as the Eitan Port docks go into full operation, we have set ourselves the goal of turning Ashdod Port into a major player in the global container shipping marketplace. Our target is to significantly increase business activity and, within two to four years, to handle 50% of all container transport in Israel. Thanks to the mutual interests created by the reforms, I believe that these goals can be achieved by the new management by working hand in hand with our port workers. I view the port's dedicated workers, old and new, as full partners in our aim of achieving the goals we have set ourselves."
