JERUSALEM — The ceremony to inaugurate the new port in the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa was held online on Sept 1, with Israeli Transportation and Road Safety Minister Merav Michaeli saying the new port opened a new gateway to the world.

The port is an automated container port constructed primarily by the China Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), and the opening ceremony was held at two venues respectively in Haifa and Shanghai, China.

In Haifa, Michaeli said that for the first time in Israel, ships with a capacity of about 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), can be seen berthed in the new port of Haifa.

Israel is grateful for the advanced technology, equipment and project management and operation experience brought from Shanghai, she added.

Dai Yuming, minister counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Israel, said that the new port of Haifa is a microcosm of China-Israel mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation.

In May 2015, the Israel Port Development and Assets Corporation and SIPG signed an agreement in Tel Aviv, Israel, officially granting SIPG the right to operate the new port of Haifa for 25 years, beginning from 2021.

The construction of the port was officially launched in 2018, planned in two phases. The first phase, with an 805.5-meter shoreline length terminal, has been completed. The second-phase terminal shoreline length is 715.7 meters.

Haifa is the transportation and industrial center of Israel and a railway hub along the Mediterranean Sea. Haifa Port is the largest port in Israel and one of the largest ports in the Eastern Mediterranean.