Activity at the ports of Ashdod and Haifa in Israel fell 30 percent in the last few weeks due to the unrest in the Palestinian territories, Haaretz newspaper reported, quoting managers of the two ports as saying.
The managers believe, however, that this situation is only temporary.
"Activity levels will be back to normal within two months, even if the political situation remains the same,” Moshe Naveh, the Haifa Port manager said.
For this reason no redundancies are expected, and the ports are even planning to hire more hands as activity increases, he added.
Chair of the association of marine transport users, Eyal Malmoud, on the other hand, said that many importers have already been hit really hard, and things will only get worse in months to come.
"The government has undervalued the impact of the riots on the Israeli economy," Malmoud said.
According to the paper, the association, together with the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, asked the government to help importers by cutting import taxes across the board.
The government, Malmoud said, agreed to provide assistance on a case-to-case basis only.
Activity has decreased because, after encountering difficulties in obtaining the release of cargo bound for the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian and Israeli importers alike decided that they were better off not bringing their shipments in at all, Haaretz added - Albawaba.com
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