The service which will employ 13 TEU 6,000 capacity vessels will call at Ashdod port as the first port of call after crossing the Suez Canal

The joint operation will deploy eight TEU 4,200 container vessels, five from the Grand Alliance and three from Zim, and will take effect from early next month

The company is to temporarily suspend its fixed-day weekly Asia-Gulf Express (AGX) service. ZCS service will now add a call at Pusan

Cooperation will be on two strings of the NWX and PNX services on the transpacific with immediate effect. Zim will provide three TEU 8,000 to TEU 10,000 vessels from July onward

Captain Nir Dagan, VP operations Arkia Israeli Airlines, said that the airline proved its safety record and is proud to be accredited withthis standart

Turkey was the second largest source of incoming containers with TEU 51,075 and TEU 11,169 exported

Exports from Israel to Jordan increased some 15% in 2008, totaling US$289 million. Exports to Egypt increased by 3%, totaling US$160 million

The IMF has a bleak projection for the Israeli economy, predicting it would see a negative growth rate of 0.2%