Haifa Port, the largest of Israel's three major international seaports, has recorded a new record after moving 223 containers per ship hour.
The port moved an average of more than 40 containers per crane hour on January 12, 2018, with the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s vessel, MSC Vandya, arriving in the morning on an A shift and leaving on a B shift in the evening to make its berth window at the Port of Koper on the Adriatic.
At 10:15 am, five cranes were assigned to the ship at the Carmel Terminal, with seven operating on the ship during the B shift.
However, Haifa Port said that the number of cranes did not guarantee success, and peak productivity was required in order to complete the unloading process within an extremely tight schedule.
The A shift achieved average productivity of 44.9 containers per crane hour, while B shift moved an average of 39.9 containers per crane hour.
Haifa Port stated that the crews also recorded “a very impressive” figure of 223 containers per ship hour.
This resulted in all the required operations on the ship being completed by 7:00pm in a time of eight hours and 45 minutes, enabling the MSC Vandya to depart Haifa Port on schedule.
Edni Simkin, CEO of MSC Israel, said: “Haifa Port met the challenge in the short time it had to complete work on the ship.
“It is a great achievement, both in terms of the quantity of containers, which was significantly greater on this occasion, and in terms of the port's impressive productivity.
“All that remains is to thank Haifa Port and the dockworkers who managed to get the ship out before Shabbat, enabling it to arrive on time at the Port of Koper.
“It was an extraordinary challenge and an exceptional level of performance by any standard.
“There are not many terminals anywhere in the world that could do something like this.”
