Steven Scheer News

Attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis on cargo ships in the Red Seas are having limited effect on trade to Israel and have not led to any significant inflationary pressures, Israel's Finance Ministry said in a report on Monday.Houthi militants have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel's military actions in Gaza.Their Red Sea attacks have disrupted global shipping…

Chinese shipping firm COSCO has suspended shipping to Israel, Israeli financial news website Globes reported on Sunday.The report, which did not include details behind the decision, came as shipping lanes in the Red Sea have been disrupted by attacks carried out by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.COSCO offices in Israel declined comment. Israeli port officials said they were checking the report.(Reuters - Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Steven Scheer; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

Dubai's DP World has pulled out of a joint bid with an Israeli company to privatize Israel's Haifa port, Israel's privatization body said.Israel is selling its state-owned ports and building new private docks in an effort to encourage competition and lower costs.DP World had signed an agreement with Israel Shipyards Industries for exclusive cooperation in the privatization of the Haifa port, one of Israel's two main sea terminals on its Mediterranean coast.But in a statement released late Thursday…

Israeli shipping firm Zim said on Wednesday it would start to offer direct service to Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).With its new line, Zim joins a number of international rivals—including MSC, Maersk—to announce they would offer a connection between Israel and the UAE since the countries agreed to normalize relations.Zim said its line will take cargo from Jebel Ali to Israel's Mediterranean Haifa port and, in the other direction, offer service from Israel and the eastern Mediterranean to the UAE.Zim is 32% owned by Kenon Holdings .Rani Ben Yehuda, a Zim executive vice presid

Israeli shipping company Zim is considering an initial public offering on a foreign exchange, Israeli news website Globes reported on Monday.A Zim spokesman said the company was not commenting.Two options being examined are to hold the offering in London or New York, according to Globes, a financial news website, which did not cite its sources.Zim, with a workforce of about 4,200 and which had turnover in 2019 of $3.3 billion, has hired three foreign banks to help with the IPO…

TEL AVIV - Israel's largest seaport in the southern city of Ashdod is fully operational, with containers being unloaded at a similar pace to a year ago despite the global outbreak of coronavirus, the port's chairwoman said.Some 97% of cargo to Israel, by weight, arrives by ship and the government has assured the country there will be no shortages of essential products.There are currently 25 ships at the port and since the start of 2020 some 200,000 containers have been unloaded…

Israeli dockworkers ended a two-day strike on Thursday that had shut down the country's two main seaports in protest at the creation of new foreign-run ports. Some 2,400 workers had walked out of the ports of Ashdod and Haifa as union leaders went underground and for most of Thursday defied orders from labour courts to return to their posts. Some 40 ships were left waiting to be unloaded. Israel's transport minister had threatened to declare a state of emergency and the workers could have faced criminal charges, before both port workers' unions agreed to end the strike.

Striking Israeli dockworkers defied a court order on Thursday and shut down the country's two main seaports for a second day in protest at the creation of two new foreign-run ports. Spokesmen for the ports of Ashdod and Haifa said 2,400 workers had left their posts and union leaders had gone underground. Forty ships were stuck at quays or off the coast waiting to be unloaded. "The workers made a serious mistake this time," said Transport Minister Israel Katz. The government, frustrated by labour disputes that have disrupted Israel's trade arteries for years, signed contracts with two foreign companies on Thursday to operate terminals adjacent to the state-run ports of Ashdod and Haifa.

A tanker delivered a cargo of disputed crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan's new pipeline for the first time on Friday in Israel, despite threats by Baghdad to take legal action against any buyer. The SCF Altai tanker arrived at Israel's Ashkelon port early on Friday morning, ship tracking and industry sources said. By the evening, the tanker began unloading the Kurdish oil, a source at the port said. The Kurdistan Regional Government said on Saturday, a day after the news was first reported, it did not deal with Israel in the sale. "The KRG categorically refutes the claim that it has sold oil to Israel," a spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Resources said in an email.

(Reuters) - Israel's Haifa seaport, one of the country's main trade arteries, has been shut indefinitely after management told employees involved in a work slowdown to stay home. Since last week, workers at the port on Israel's northern Mediterranean coast have been operating cranes that load and unload 11 to 13 containers an hour - well below its normal 30 containers an hour, a spokesman at the port said. "The port will not reopen until we get a strong declaration from the union that workers will work at full force," he said on Monday, the first day of the closure. He said ships were either going to Israel's other main port in Ashdod further south or stopping in Cyprus, Greece and Italy and eventually make their way to Israel.