Port of Ashdod

Ashdod’s harbor serves central and southern Israel and forms part of a national transport system overwhelmingly dependent on maritime commerce.[1][4] At the end of 2021, maritime trade represented 99.6% of Israel’s foreign trade by weight and volume; national maritime trade reached 83.5 million tons in 2022 including energy products, or 60.5 million tons excluding them.[4] These national figures provide the setting for Ashdod’s importance but do not measure the port’s own throughput.[4]

Built on the open sea, the artificial harbor is protected by two breakwaters and serves central and southern Israel.[1] Its cargo categories include containers, bulk commodities such as coal, minerals, and grain, general cargo, and passengers.[1] Citrus exports were prominent in its early commercial activity.[5][6]

The port was planned together with the development of Ashdod, partly to shorten transport routes in southern Israel, and has a trunk-line connection to the national railway network.[7] Its commercial advantages include access to major transport routes, proximity to the consumption and business centres of the Tel Aviv region and Jerusalem, and connections to production areas supplying agricultural produce and phosphates.[8] Tel Aviv and Jaffa, whose cargo operations it replaced, lie about 40 kilometres to the north.[1]

The distinction between the established Port of Ashdod and the neighbouring South Port is important to understanding recent development: the newer terminal added a separate competitor rather than simply enlarging the older port’s operations.[3] The South Port recorded increased transshipment container activity in 2023, although the available account did not quantify that increase.[3]

Planning for Ashdod and its port in the mid-1950s reserved a substantial tract of land for the harbor and supporting activities, anticipating development over the long term.[9] Transportation investment had become a priority after 1948 because of damaged infrastructure, railway lines severed by new borders, and population growth through immigration.[1] Construction of a second deep-water port at Ashdod, alongside the expansion of Haifa, was part of Israel’s development during its second decade, 1958–1968, and was intended to accommodate increasing trade.[10]

Ashdod was selected because its seafront was straight and its beach flat and sandy; the new harbor was intended to share the burden of expanding imports and exports at a time when Haifa’s possibilities were described as restricted.[11] Construction began in April 1961.[12] The Ports Authority, established that year, also planned for future port development.[9] An early-1960s account portrayed the port as a maritime outlet for the Negev hinterland, with jetties and breakwaters already under construction.[13]

Port building was accompanied by the construction of the city, housing, and industry.[13] Many eligible local workers were employed in these activities, while Port Authority Director Haim Laskov contrasted the emerging harbor and urban-industrial development with the sand that had occupied the area four years earlier.[13] Contemporary expectations were ambitious: an early account projected annual cargo capacity exceeding one million tons by the end of 1964 and five million tons by the end of 1970, and envisaged Ashdod as Israel’s second-largest seaport on completion.[13] These were development forecasts, not records of capacity actually achieved.[13]

The 1965 master plan described a two-phase scheme.[11] Its first complete phase was a $75 million project with an enclosed sea area of one square kilometre, a 2,200-metre main breakwater, a 900-metre lee breakwater, and 250 acres of port land.[11] Later proposals would extend the main breakwater to 2,900 metres, enlarge the basin to 1.5 square kilometres, and expand port land to 1,400 acres, including 112 acres reclaimed from the sea.[11] Those later dimensions were planned features rather than a statement of completed construction.[11]

An interim “Citrus Phase” was advanced to meet rising citrus exports and was expected to be ready for the 1965–66 citrus season.[11] Estimated at $45 million, it included breakwater construction and a citrus pier; work was also advanced on a bulk-loading pier for phosphates and potash.[11] About 2.5 million tons of rock went into the breakwaters, whose seaward faces were protected by interlocking, four-limbed concrete units known as tetrapods.[11] The wider master plan included a floating dry dock, marine railway, ship-repair workshops, facilities for small vessels and harbor craft, storage and fueling installations, and a lighthouse planned to stand 68 metres above sea level.[11]

On July 12, 1965, the M/V Yarden docked with four large cranes for the citrus wharf, at a dock completed only 24 hours earlier.[11] Its 35-person crew was led by Captain A. Fishmann, who had attended the harbor’s cornerstone ceremony four years before.[11] The construction account then expected completion of the breakwaters to permit operations by October.[11] The port opened in November 1965, replacing cargo operations at Tel Aviv and Jaffa; Sweden’s Wiengelgad arrived that November.[1][12] A map created in 1965 by the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ Department of Shipping and Ports documented the harbor at a scale of 1:12,500.[14]

Early commercial activity prominently involved citrus exports.[5] A newspaper report preserved in a 1966 archival file described Ashdod as Israel’s second deep-water port after Haifa and reported an expectation that capacity would reach four million tons within a few years.[5] Israel Bonds fundraising material in 1970 listed the harbor among projects aided by bond investment and identified it as an outlet for citrus and Negev chemical products.[6] In his account of Zionist maritime history, Matti Friedman describes Tel Aviv’s port operations as continuing after World War II until their transfer to better facilities at Ashdod in 1965.[15]

By 1985, Ashdod accounted for 39.3% of freight unloaded at Israeli ports and 68.7% of freight loaded, showing its particularly substantial share of outward cargo in that year.[16] In 1999, the port processed 16.2 million tons of cargo and 167,000 passengers.[1] Both sets of figures describe historical activity, not present-day traffic.[1][16]

The Ports 2000 programme proposed approximately $1 billion in investment over six years across Haifa and Ashdod, seeking greater capacity, improved service, and better road and rail access.[1] At Ashdod, the proposed Hayovel, or Jubilee, development lay north of the existing facilities, with its first stage initially scheduled for completion in 2002.[1] That schedule was a planning expectation rather than the eventual opening date.[1]

Jubilee Port was in trial operation from May 2005 and subsequently held a launch ceremony that year.[17] The launch account described 1,700 metres of quays, an operational area of 1,000 dunams, and a 1,150-metre breakwater.[17] It anticipated that the expansion could reduce ship waiting times by as much as 70% during 2005.[17] A later account valued the expansion at NIS 2.6 billion and described it as a response to a bottleneck caused by heavy ship traffic; it dated completion of the contractor’s work to January 2007.[18]

The older port had nine operational quays in a 2015 description, while Jubilee added three quays totalling 1.7 kilometres and three gates.[19] That account gave the main breakwater’s length as approximately 3.3 kilometres and treated Jubilee as the first stage of a larger development programme.[19] Further proposals north of Jubilee envisaged reclaiming about 632 dunams of sea area, constructing another container terminal, extending the main breakwater by roughly 600 metres, and deepening the port to 27 metres.[19] These were proposals under consideration in 2015, not completed works.[19]

Ashdod Port Company’s 2005–2010 development plan called for investment of NIS 700 million.[20] One major component was a proposed NIS 153 million grain conveyor at the Rafael Eitan Port quays, connecting ship unloading points to Ashdod’s silos by a 2.1-kilometre belt.[20] The objective was to improve Ashdod’s competitive position in grain imports, a sector in which Haifa then handled 70% of the national total.[20]

A 2016 agreement among the government, port workers, and the Histadrut sought to prepare the established port for competition with the new private terminal nearby.[21] It provided for upgrading Quay 21 from general cargo service to accommodate container ships of up to 18,000 TEU, converting two other quays to general cargo, purchasing and upgrading cranes, and transferring 95 workers to Israel Ports Development and Assets Company.[21] Most ships using the port at that time had capacities of about 9,000 TEU.[21]

The agreement to build the Southern Port was signed in 2014 by Israel Ports Company and Pan Mediterranean Engineering Company, or PMEC, a China Harbour subsidiary.[22] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the transport and finance ministers, Ashdod’s mayor, and Chinese Ambassador Gao Yanping attended the signing.[22] PMEC won separate tenders for construction of Southport and for upgrading and deepening platform 21 at the existing port.[23]

The new Southport and Haifa Bayport were planned as private container terminals alongside existing government ports.[2] Each was specified as 800 metres long and 17.3 metres deep, designed for ships up to 400 metres long and carrying as many as 24,000 TEU.[2] An industry estimate envisaged eventual maximum capacity of about two million TEU at each terminal; this was not measured operating throughput.[2] The projects formed part of a national reform intended to provide more capacity and accommodate larger ships, against a 2020 assessment that Ashdod and Haifa were close to full container capacity and container entry into Israel could grow by 3–4% annually.[2]

South Port began partial operations in the third quarter of 2021.[24] Its fuller opening was delayed by pandemic-related obstacles to the arrival of workers and equipment, including cranes, followed by technical problems in its control system.[24] The terminal, also called Hadarom Port, was inaugurated in 2022, with expected handling capability described as one million standard containers.[25] That projection is distinct from both the earlier maximum-capacity estimate and actual traffic.[2][25] In 2023, South Port was controlled by Switzerland-based TIL, owned by shipping company MSC; a 2025 account likewise identified the new Ashdod terminal’s operator as Switzerland-based.[24][26]

Ashdod Port Company Ltd. operates the established port.[27] During an audit conducted from August 2022 to April 2023, it was the only port company still owned by the state.[27] The company stated that it transferred NIS 733 million in dividends to the state for 2005–2018 and NIS 591.4 million in royalties for 2011–2022.[27] By 2025, government plans for partial privatization remained ongoing, and 20% of its shares were publicly listed.[28]

The port’s business extends beyond containers to vehicles, bulk cargo, general cargo, and cruise passengers.[24] A report on its economic role recorded more than 14 million tons of cargo and approximately 2,700 ship calls annually, alongside an estimated 40% share of Israel’s import and export cargo.[8] A separate article produced in cooperation with the port gave an infrastructure inventory of 11 piers and 78 cranes, about 2,200 annual ship calls, and a 40% share of total cargo volume.[29] These reports describe activity using different periods and measures and should not be treated as a single current statistical series.[8][29]

Competition from South Port coincided with weaker activity at the established port in early 2023.[24] First-quarter container throughput declined from 360,000 TEU in 2022 to 303,000 TEU in 2023, while general cargo fell from 519,000 to 298,000 tons.[24] Its container-market share was described as approximately 35%, compared with 46% in the corresponding 2022 period.[24] Over the same first-quarter comparison, South Port’s container volume rose from about 20,000 to 88,000 TEU.[24] The report situated the decline amid growing competition but attributed the established port’s weakness mainly to its conduct and working methods.[24]

Company-published 2024 results, carried in sponsored material, reported 681,000 containers handled, up 1.8% from 669,000 in 2023, and a container-market share of 41.5%.[30] The same results recorded approximately 125,000 vehicles unloaded, 9.232 million tons of bulk cargo—including fertilizers, cement, coal, and grain—and 968,000 tons of general cargo.[30] The container counts in these results are not labelled as TEU in the supplied figures and therefore should not be directly substituted for the TEU totals in the quarterly comparisons.[24][30]

Development behind the port has sought to link maritime operations with storage, distribution, and industry.[9] In 2010, plans for an industrial and logistics park included an initial 106 dunams offered for development and a 650-dunam tract where infrastructure work was underway.[9] The intended concentration of foreign-trade, logistics, storage, distribution, and port-service businesses near the port gate and freight railway facilities offered the prospect of reducing truck and container movements.[9]

Average waiting time to unload containers at Ashdod rose from 8.8 hours in 2017 to 17.3 hours in 2021, while general-cargo waiting increased from 31.2 to 123.6 hours and bulk-cargo waiting from 49.4 to 313.2 hours.[27] Average ship dwell time over the same period rose from 34 to 53.6 hours for containers, 93 to 196.8 hours for general cargo, and 159.5 to 570.6 hours for bulk cargo.[27] Waiting times fell in 2022 for all cargo types except general cargo, where they increased by 7%.[27]

Between 2017 and 2022, general-cargo output per work hour declined from 136 to 116 tons, and bulk-cargo output from 258 to 195 tons.[27] Responsiveness to requests for container work crews decreased by 24%, compared with 60% for general cargo and 70% for bulk cargo.[27] Between 13.8% and 22.0% of operational workers were not assigned to loading or unloading tasks during 2018–2022.[27] These findings formed part of an examination of port-sector activity and service levels, including Ashdod’s performance through 2022.[27]

Comparative results varied substantially by measure.[27] Ashdod ranked 13th among 14 ports for overall ship dwell time in a 2021 comparison, but third among 11 ports when the comparison was limited to container ships of 8,001–13,500 TEU.[27] The narrower ship-size result therefore describes a different measure from the overall ranking.[27]

Grain handling exposed a particular mismatch between demand and unloading activity.[27] In 2021, 84.9% of imported grain was unloaded in the Haifa port area and 15.1% at Ashdod, although demand was divided approximately 55% in the north and 45% in the south.[27] Ashdod’s smaller share was associated with poor service, delays in putting its grain conveyor into operation, and a truck-driver shortage cited by the port company.[27]

The conveyor entered operation in January 2023, nine months behind its original schedule and 12 years after the October 2010 ministerial decision to build it.[27] Its cost exceeded the original NIS 225 million budget by about NIS 12 million.[27] A supply-chain study described the dockside-to-silo conveyor as constructed in 2022 and credited it with improved efficiency.[4] Nevertheless, a late-November 2023 assessment identified relatively slow grain handling and malfunctioning new automated unloading systems as problems that predated the war.[31]

Ashdod’s silos partially support those at Haifa, but their capacity and storage space are insufficient to replace Haifa’s silos fully if those cease operating.[4] The combined Haifa and Ashdod unloading facilities were described as having nominal annual capability of up to six million tons of seed cargo, depending on cargo volume, storage duration, and proper operation.[4] That combined-system figure is not Ashdod’s individual capacity.[4]

On March 14, 2004, a double suicide terrorist attack at the port killed ten people and wounded at least 15.[32] Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Hamas claimed responsibility.[32] Ashdod also hosts an Israeli naval base, giving the port area a military as well as commercial role.[33]

During the first week of the Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, roughly a dozen ships skipped Ashdod, while the port continued operating around the clock.[34] The port is about 40 kilometres from the Gaza border.[34] Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Line diverted an Ashdod-bound vessel to Haifa, citing a “persisting unsafe situation,” and subsequently announced diversion of all its ships.[34]

By late November 2023, port activity was continuing under emergency restrictions, including limits on some hazardous-material imports.[31] A foreign vessel anchoring at the entrance sustained slight property damage from shockwave and shrapnel effects after a nearby rocket explosion.[31] Some ships shifted to Haifa because hazardous cargo could not be unloaded at Ashdod, while some container activity subsequently returned.[31] Grain and grain-product shipping difficulties particularly affected Ashdod, where pre-existing handling problems compounded the wartime disruption.[31]

Ashdod has also handled cargo destined for Gaza.[35] In a 2018 analysis, Pinhas Inbari described an arrangement involving initial inspection at Ashdod, trucking to Kerem Shalom for further inspection, and transfer to Palestinian trucks for delivery.[35] He identified the Palestinian Authority as responsible for Palestinian activity on the Israeli side and customs collection, and Hamas as responsible on the Gazan side.[35]

Inbari characterized the arrangement as unofficial and ad hoc and reported that Kerem Shalom operated around the clock, with traffic that had recently reached as many as a thousand trucks daily before falling by half as Gaza’s economy and purchasing power deteriorated.[35] His account concerned the circumstances reported in 2018, rather than a permanent description of the cargo regime.[35] In July 2024, Ashdod remained an important route for humanitarian deliveries to Gaza, particularly aid moving through Cyprus, although logistical and capacity constraints persisted and the humanitarian situation remained dire.[36]

Chinese participation in constructing the new Ashdod terminal drew attention in the context of broader American concerns about Chinese infrastructure investment and possible security implications.[33] A 2019 assessment placed the China Harbour subsidiary’s construction activity alongside the presence of an Israeli naval base at Ashdod.[33] Construction and operation were distinct roles: PMEC built Southport, while the terminal was subsequently controlled by Switzerland-based TIL.[23][24] The security concerns concerned foreign involvement in strategically important infrastructure and did not, in the supplied account, establish wrongdoing by the contractor.[33]