US President Joe Biden stirred up the port industry in the world, when he decided to invest NIS 20 billion in local crane production, as well as expand the authority of the American authorities to examine and investigate cyber security problems in port infrastructures. This, after according to reports the US discovered modems that are used for communication Remote and data collection on top of cranes of the world’s leading Chinese manufacturer. Meanwhile, it seems that in Israel most of the experts and decision makers refuse to get excited.
The company ZPMC (Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company) is based in Shanghai, and is traded on the local stock exchange with a value of 14.5 billion Chinese yuan (2 billion dollars), while it dominates more than 70% of the world market for port cranes – these are used for unloading and loading containers. She denied the suspicions against her and said that her people “obey the laws and regulations of the relevant countries and regions”. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing also rejected the claims and defined them as “absolute paranoia”.
However, the Chinese government or the company did not even try to explain why an investigation by the Committee on Homeland Security in the House of Representatives found that in a dozen of the ZPMC cranes in the country (out of more than 200), and in related equipment, means of communication were discovered without a clear purpose and without these parts even being in the contracts between the port owners and the company.
“devastating to the economy”
The Chinese company operates a headquarters in New Jersey and has offices in Florida – in the city of Hialeah and in the port of Fernandina, and about 80% of the cranes in the US are its own. “These modems may not only harm business competitors with the help of espionage, but also disrupt supply chains and cargo movement,” he said. Mark Green, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the House of Representatives. “It’s a devastating thing for our economy.” The same destructiveness that Green talks about comes from the fact that, according to estimates, American port cranes handle trillions of dollars worth of goods annually.
At the same time, Congress recently investigated the Swiss engineering company ABB, because about 16% of its sales are made with China. The House of Representatives summoned senior officials from the company to examine its cooperation with ZPMC. The company explained that they sell their control and electrical products to many crane manufacturers, including Chinese, but also to the USA – their main export destination with 24% of all sales.
Technological advancement is difficult
In response to these revelations, US President Joe Biden decided to entrust the US Coast Guard with handling the issue of cyber security in ports. At the same time, he ordered an investment of approximately 20 billion dollars over five years in a new American-made infrastructure program for sea ports.
However, it seems like a “drop in the ocean” the cranes made by ZPMC. The price of a reasonable ZMPC crane is estimated at about 15 million dollars, before transportation, installation and service costs. According to the American Ant Association (AAPA). This is a price that is about half of its counterparts in the market. Israel also has such cranes, mainly in the two new seaports – the Gulf port operated by the Chinese company SIPG has eight cranes, and the southern port operated by the Swiss company TIL has nine. In addition to them, there are also six such cranes in the government Ashdod port. Each of the cranes transmits faults back, so that even before a technician arrives – he receives accurate monitoring of the fault. This is an illustration of the transmission capabilities of the cranes, which are obviously connected to Chinese servers just like, for example, Chinese-made cars or drones.
The new ports in the south and in the Gulf are equipped with a control room through which the cranes are operated – cameras are installed on top of them that allow control, this is different from the old cranes in Israel that an operator is required to operate. Along with the technological breakthrough and the high efficiency of the cranes, there are also those who fear their operation and not only for security reasons, but mainly in view of China’s strengthening in this field. The National Cyber Array responded: “The issue was examined as part of the array’s ongoing proactive checks at Ashdod Port and the risk of an attack was ruled out.”
Security or competition?
Shaul Schneider, chairman of the Ashdod port, told Globes that “after the decade-long Chinese flood (export of goods at prices lower than their prices in the country of origin) there is a crazy loss of knowledge. Over the years there were three players in this market, European and American, and in every tender the Chinese offered low prices, so much so that they took over about 85% of the crane market in general.”
According to him, in the port of Ashdod, the Chinese electronic systems were replaced with European ones. “We do this as our strategy, not to allow hacking capabilities or other capabilities that the Chinese are developing, and we work closely with the national cyber system. We replaced the systems when we understood the meanings and exposures they might have, and we also installed sensors that can block remote penetration, hacking and takeover attempts. We We are trying to reduce the exposure to zero.”
Schneider is one of the prominent voices in the government against Chinese involvement in Israel’s ports, and even warned against the activities of the Gulf port. However, the shipping and ports authority rejected his claims with harsh words.
In any case, captain Yigal Maor, former director of the Shipping and Ports Authority and a lecturer at Haifa University, tries to reassure. “We have no reason to worry because even if there is remote control, what can it do? They will stop the work, but we have a surplus of ports in Israel so that such an extreme case will damage about 20% of port capacity. But that is irrelevant because no one will stop the work, a port is a business that was created to work.”
The concerns about data collection in the US don’t bother him either. “What information can they already collect? The Israeli authorities publish to the public how many containers entered, how many left, what is in the containers and the shipping companies also provide more detail than that, so there is no value in collecting the information. They also warned that the cranes are capable of photographing the Navy in Haifa. Anyone standing on the Carmel above with a wedding photographer’s zoom can see more than that at the navy base.
“They talk about a lot of concerns, but it’s not as loud as it sounds. Even in the US, the main conversation is much more about technological competition between these two superpowers – each country wants its technology to be dominant and not dictated to it.” Galia Lavi, Deputy Head of the Glazer Center for Israel Policy – China explains that the great advantage of the Chinese cranes is that they come in “one piece” without the need for assembly, and that production costs are significantly lower.
According to her, “Currently the order has no effect because in the US there is no talk of replacing existing cranes. The cranes in the Gulf port sit on a network of fibers, and in this network there are modems installed on the crane that transmit to the control room, and the controller knows how to navigate the loading and unloading of the containers. There is a potential risk here as in any communication product. Now the question is how big the risk is and what information they can get. The theoretical risk is always present. In the US there are more such cranes making their way to the ports.”
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