Winning Bizness Desk

Asia's richest businessman Gautam Adani's group along with its partner Gadot has won the bid for privatization of Haifa Port in Israel. Adani Port will hold a 70% stake in the port. While the remaining 30% shares will be with Gadot. Gadot is the largest chemical and logistics group in Israel. Haifa Port, located on the Mediterranean Coast, is a major trade hub of Israel. Gautam Adani informed about winning the bid by tweeting. "Glad to win the bid for the privatization of Haifa Port, Israel, together with our partner Gadot," he wrote. This port is of great strategic and historical importance to both the countries.

Rs 9,500 crore bid

Adani, along with Israel's Gadot, had made a bid of 4.1 billion shekels (about Rs 9,500 crore) for the port. Both these companies outperformed other bidders, DAO, Israel Shipyard and Shafir Engineering. Adani Group and Gadot will operate this port for the next 32 years, i.e. till 2054. Israel's Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that this is very good news for the citizens of Israel. The privatization of the port of Haifa will increase competition among the ports and thus reduce the cost of living. The tender process lasted for about two years, after which Adani and Gadot got this success.

This is Israel's second major port

The largest port of Israel is Ashdod, following Haifa. In 2021, about 47% of all container cargo in Israel passed through the port of Haifa. Haifa is Israel's main port in terms of passenger transportation. In 2021, Haifa's revenue was 845 million shekels (about Rs 19.29 crore) and net profit was 271 million shekels (about Rs 619 crore). This port is located about 90 km from Tel Aviv, the commercial city of Israel. The existing infrastructure of Haifa Port includes two container terminals and two multi-cargo terminals. The total length of the developed quay (a port-loading platform) is more than 2,900 meters. The maximum draft available ranges from 11m to 16.5m.

Various Passenger Amenities at the Port

Haifa Port has a roll-on roll-off (RORO), a cruise terminal with various passenger amenities and a waterfront length of 2 km for development. During 2021, HPC produced 1.46 million TEUs (TEU or Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit is a precise unit of measurement used to determine cargo capacity for container ships and terminals.) containers, 2.56 million tons in general and bulk.