Israel GPO, 14 June 2011:

“The Port of Haifa is Israel's largest seaport. It is also the only port built alongside a protected natural bay which allows its operation all year long, and the only one that operates 7 days a week. The first person to comprehend the tremendous possibilities of a port in Haifa was Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism, who in 1898 wrote a prophetic description of the town in his book AltNeuland. What Herzl dreamt about came to reality during the British Mandate, and the port was officially opened on October 31, 1933.

The port currently handles containers, import, export and transshipment, and can handle all types of cargo. In 2010 the port handled TEU 1,263,552, a record figure for container handling in Israel. Two major milestones were achieved during 2011. The first is the opening of the new Carmel terminal, the most advanced container terminal in Israel. This terminal can handle mega-ships, up to 10,000 TEU's and is equipped with the best cranes in the world. The second is the full implementation of the world's most advanced TOS (Terminal Operating System) to control and optimizes container handling. This year, the activity in Haifa Port was influenced by the situations in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The strikes in Egyptian ports caused some transshipment work to relocate to Haifa, but the most dramatic changes are in cruise ships. Many of the cruise ships that decided to skip North Africa (and probably will not return there any time soon) now come to Israel – especially Haifa – instead.”