The Haifa Port Company in Israel will support its expected growth by replacing the company's 20-year-old container management system with Navis SPARCS N4, the industry's leading and most advanced terminal operating system (TOS). Computer Weekly News reported.

The Port of Haifa, which sits on the shores of the Bay of Haifa on northern Israel's coast in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, will implement SPARCS N4 during the second half of 2010.

The port's container terminals include the Western, Eastern, Carmel and Kishon terminals. The Carmel Container Terminal is currently being used only as a storage area, but will be fully used as the Port's newest and most advanced container terminal in 2010.

"We were impressed by SPARCS N4's richness of functionality, advanced planning modules and the simplicity of using the system by the end user," said Uri Regev, the port's chief information officer.

The Port of Haifa, which is the main gate for Israeli trade, was established in 1933 and expanded substantially since then, to become the largest container handling port in Israel, serving the major industries in this country.

In 2008, three of the Haifa port terminals - Eastern, Western and Kishon - showed total throughput of 1.25 million TEU's. The Port of Haifa is expected to increase to 2.5 million TEU's in the coming years, after the Carmel new container terminal is fully operational, Regev said.