New market study, "Israel Freight Transport Report Q2 2011", has been published

April 24, 2011 - PRLog -- Israel's freight and shipping industry had a strong recovery in 2010 after the global recession in 2008 and 2009. However, BMI expects the strong bounce in 2010 to be followed by more subdued growth in 2011. Air freight, shipping and rail freight are expected to have stronger growth than GDP growth. BMI expects total trade in real terms to grow 3.75% in 2011.

Israel's economy still has problems and the IMF downgraded its projection for Israel's economic growth in 2011 to 3.5% from the 3.9% it had estimated in October 2010. The IMF's revised economic growth projections are a response to inflationary pressure, as the IMF sees inflation in Israel reaching 2.7% in 2011 after a 2.2% increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) during 2010. The Bank of Israel (BOI) decided to raise the interest rate by a quarter point on February 1 2011 to get the country's inflation rate back on target. Analysts see further tightening in coming months. Unemployment is still rising with the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported in late January, 2011 that on the basis of trend figures in its Labour Force Survey the unemployment rate rose to 6.8% of the civilian labour force in November 2010, amounting to 216,000 employees. Unemployment has risen since July 2010, when it was 6.5% and up from 6.6% in August 2010.

Headline Industry Data

?? 2011 air freight tonnage is forecast at +5.3% following projected growth of +10.42% in 2010. ?? 2011 port of Haifa TEU throughput forecast at +4.06% following a projected growth of 5.47% in 2010. ?? 2011 rail freight tonnes is forecast to grow at +3.84% following a projected growth of +12.88% in 2010. ?? 2011 total trade growth in real terms is forecast at +3.75%.

Key Industry Trends

Logistics Service Expansion

In early February 2011 UPS announced the expansion of its UPS Express Freight service into Israel that will serve this expanding hub for hi-tech and industrial.

El Al Benefits From Higher Air Cargo Traffic

Total air cargo movements through Israel's airports in 2010 reached 302,903 tons, up 10.41 per cent compared to 274,319 tons in 2009. In December 2010, El Al carried 5,039 tons of cargo in the belly holds of its passenger fleet, an increase of 7.32% compared to the same period in 2009. However, other key Israeli carriers saw tonnage tumble. During December 2010, Ben-Gurion International Airport handled 26,197 tons of air cargo compared to 28,587 in December 2009, down 0.8%. Another key Israeli cargo carrier, CAL, carried 4,584 tons on its freighters in December 2010, a fall of -19.12% compared to the 5,668 tons it carried a year earlier.

Call for Israel To Meet International Aviation Standards

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, called on Israel to speed up its exit from Category 2 of the US Federal Aviation Administration's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) in late November 2010.

Three Ports See Strikes

A strike at Israel's three main ports of Ashdod, Haifa and Eilat began on January 3 2011, as part of an ongoing wage dispute between the ports' workers and the Israeli Ministry of Finance. It was settled rapidly and lasted only three days.

Competition Fierce For Rail Link At Eilat

The port of Eilat is up for privatisation and international companies are jostling for a role in the development of a rail link to connect the port and city to Tel Aviv. Both developments offer upside risk to throughput projections for the port, which although ideally located to cater for Asian trade still lags behind its peers as it is located far from Israel's major population centres.

Key Risks To Outlook

The primary risk to BMI's throughput projections includes worsening inflation and unemployment reducing economic growth. As a net fuel importer, Israel is vulnerable to large price fluctuations in oil which would have an adverse affect on economy. There is also the possibility of renewed industrial action at the country's ports or airports. There are powerful political risks in Israel with the possibility of fresh violent flare-ups with its Arab neighbours or the Palestinians. The coalition governments in Israel are by their nature, fractious.

For more information or to purchase this report, go to:
-  http://www.fastmr.com/prod/149633_israel_freight_transpor...

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Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.