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Issue 2 2012


///IRELAND Pallet rivals share a Dublin hub


The ONCE pallet network has closed its Portlaois hub and transferred its operations to the JMC Vantrans premises in west Dublin from the beginning of March. The network was handling only a few hundred


pallets a night, and a standalone hub was no longer viable. JMC became the Palletline


franchisee for the Irish Republic in May 2010. MD Garrett Thornton says that taking the rival network under


its wing puts ONCE closer to its main Dublin customer base, and allows co-loading. Business grew by 16% for JMC


last year, thanks to a fourfold increase in international volumes following the


Palletline tie-up. “Ease of access to UK and European markets is becoming particularly important to the SME sector in particular,” Thornton says. “We’re running three double- deck trailers per night to the UK


now, and four on some nights of the week. It’s one of the best things we ever did.” Ro-ro rates have firmed


recently, he notes. Operators are able to hold the line on double-deck trailers especially, as these can’t get on every boat. JMC has a 650-strong


customer base in Dublin, from hardware and tool


manufacturers than 200 of to


pharmaceutical companies. “More


them


have used us for UK traffic,” Thornton says. He expects a further 8% increase this year, way ahead of Ireland’s GDP growth. The company has operated


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out of the Irish post office’s former SDS parcel hub since 2008, and covers the whole of Ireland with 15 depots in all, two of them in the North. It took over from DSV as the Palletline member in the south, but DSV retains the Northern Ireland franchise and the companies work closely together, with DSV looking after inter-hub UK trunking. This has grown in importance


following Palletline’s opening of a Cumbernauld depot earlier this year. There is now a daily Dublin-Belfast-Cumbernauld trunker and Thornton expects enough volume soon for a second.


North-South divide no worry for ICG


A €10.7 million increase in fuel costs in 2011 hit profits at Irish Continental Group (ICG), parent company of Irish Ferries and Eucon. Revenue grew by 4.2% to €273.3 million but pre-tax earnings were €49.1 million, down €4.5 million. ICG chairman John


McGuckian said: “The current year will be challenging, but we have a disciplined approach. There are a number of marginal operators on the Irish Sea who continue to lose money and are likely to address their capacity.” The ro-ro market ended


the year flat for the combined island of Ireland, with some transfer of traffic from the central to the northern corridor. Business has historically split


50:50 between the two routings but the northern corridor grew around 1% thanks to new capacity. “Whether they do the road miles on the UK or the Irish side is not really a factor for hauliers and there is a certain block of business that can switch,” says Eugene Carron, Irish Ferries’ freight manager. Despite


this


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market away from its core route, Irish Ferries outperformed the market during the year, carrying more than 194,000 units to record growth of 9%. The division says the rollout


of an improved web-based booking system has “met with a very positive response from customers, particularly in respect of the mobile handset facilities which appeal to operations and driving staff alike”. ICG’s Container and Terminal


Division saw an 8.5% increase in turnover. Eucon’s lo-lo operations between Ireland and Continental Europe performed well and the Dublin (DFT) and Belfast (BCT) port terminals carried out 187,000 lifts, a 12% increase. This all helped compensate for a decline in the division’s North Sea revenues. Export-driven opening


companies are also new factories


in Ireland, and agricultural exports strong.


remain very that continuing weakness the Irish


ICG warns, however, in


the UK and the Eurozone area will have a negative impact, while


consumer


faces another difficult year as austerity programmes continue and this is likely to affect import volumes. In the first two months of


this year, ro-ro freight business was down 3.8% compared with 2011, and container movements 6.6% lower. The number of units handled at DFT and BCT was down 7.6%.


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