Ashdod Port (port code: ILASH) is a new artificial commercial port in Israel. Located 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, at the mouth of Nahal Lakhish, it is the closest port to Israel’s most important commercial centers and transportation networks.
The port is centred between two breakwaters, 2,200 meters and 900 meters in length respectively. The latter, the lee breakwater, forms the outer wall of the new container terminal. The port’s container terminal consists of an expansion of 1,150 meters to the central breakwater and 1,700 meters of new piers with a depth of 15.5 meters. Three piers in the southern part of the port support bulk and liquid cargoes with fully computerized systems. The port’s bulk facility warehouses have capacity for about a million tons of cargoes.
The port has replaced Jaffa Port and became the second largest port in Israel. Each year approximately 2,400 vessels and 300,000 passengers visit this port. Most types of vessels handled including passenger, Ro-Ro, container, bulk carriers and tankers, at the offshore oil berths.
The port handles about 18.5 million tons of cargo annually, including around 1 million TEUs. The principal exports leaving this port include citrus fruit, fertilisers, chemicals, oil and manufactured goods. The chief imports entering this port include coal, grain, general cargo and vehicles.