Eilat Port will shut on Sunday after Eilat Municipality seized its financial institution accounts following non-payment of municipal taxes, that are estimated at NIS 600,000-700,000 per thirty days. The port has not been working absolutely because the outbreak of the warfare and the specter of Houthi assaults on delivery utilizing the Purple Sea.
The closure of the port can be a blow to the Israel Navy, which has used its services because the begin of the warfare and also will adversely have an effect on the Europe Asia Pipeline Co. (EAPC), and exports of potash from ICL’s Lifeless Sea Works.
Initially Eilat Port denied studies of its imminent closure, insisting it will attain a settlement with the municipality and saying it was cooperating with the mayor. However a letter from the Nationwide Emergency Authority obtained by Globes confirms the main points. The letter says, “Following the shutdown of Eilat Port for ongoing operations and the financial scenario it has discovered itself in because of the persevering with disaster, the Eilat Municipality has notified the port administration of the seizure of the entire port’s financial institution accounts attributable to monetary money owed to the municipality. As a result of this, a discover has been obtained from the Transport and Ports Authority that Eilat Port is predicted to shut and stop all exercise beginning this coming Sunday.”
It provides that the importance of that is: stopping all port exercise; disabling the port’s tugboats and vessels; stopping help to the Israel Navy within the Purple Sea theater; stopping the export of potash from ICL crops; Stopping assist to the EAPC port; it additionally says, “If the scenario continues, a decline within the port’s gear and long-term injury to the continuity of its functioning is predicted because of the shutdown of cranes, electrical techniques, and many others.”
Emergency assembly
The report was additionally forwarded to the Ministry of Transport, whose director basic Moshe Ben Zaken has informed “Globes” that he has known as an emergency assembly on the topic, with the participation of presidency ministries, the Eilat Municipality, and the port, with the intention to avert the deliberate closure.
The Nakash brothers purchased the rights to function Eilat Port for 15 years in 2012, with an choice to increase by 10 years, for NIS 120 million. The Nakash brothers had been the only real bidders on the finish of the tender course of with business sources believing they’d paid a low quantity for the rights with estimated earnings value a whole bunch of tens of millions of shekels to be made.
When the warfare started, the port specialised in importing autos, with 50% of the vehicles introduced into Israel unloaded there. As well as, an EAPC line for transporting crude oil and exporting fertilizers and minerals additionally operates within the port space. In line with information revealed within the discussions of the Knesset Financial Committee, the port homeowners withdrew a dividend of NIS 162 millio within the 4 years previous the warfare.
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Compensation and help plan In June, the cupboard voted on a compensation plan for Eilat Port, which might be given as much as NIS 15 million compensation, conditional on cost of utilization charges that the port has but to pay the state because the outbreak of the warfare, value over NIS 3 million.
The federal government initially met the port’s calls for with skepticism, given the previous earnings of its homeowners and the belief that the safety threat in working it was embodied within the low worth paid by its homeowners on the time of buy. Nonetheless, the port is certain by collective agreements and restrictions on its workforce administration, together with the truth that the worthwhile unloading of vehicles has been minimize by 100%.
In 2023, the port’s income was NIS 212 million whereas in 2024, when the Purple Sea commerce route was closed, income fell 80% to simply NIS 42 million. In 2023, over 134 ships visited the port, and 150,000 autos had been unloaded. In 2024, no autos had been unloaded, and solely 16 ships visited the port. Within the first half of 2025, solely 6 ships visited the port.
Up to now, the port was supplied with help as a part of the marketing strategy for the whole economic system for 2023 and as a part of a chosen plan to help companies in tourism-oriented cities for the primary two months of 2024. The port additionally obtained a deferral in cost of consumer charges to the state value NIS 3.2 million and a state assure for a mortgage of as much as NIS 30 million, of which NIS 16 million was utilized.
The federal government is crucial of the port’s non-payment to Eilat Municipality, as a result of help already given, and the truth that the port was privatized, and simply as its homeowners made a revenue for a decade till the outbreak of the warfare, so they need to “take cash out of their pockets” in troublesome occasions.
However though the port is non-public, it’s also a strategic asset of the state, and it’s uncertain whether or not the efforts made up to now have been sufficient to maintain it open.
Revealed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on July 16, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
