IRELAND\\\


Trade handled by Belfast port during 2012 rose to a record 19.6m tonnes, up 11% on the previous year, driven primarily by an improved performance in the ro-ro and bulk sectors. Roy Adair, Belfast Harbour’s


CEO, commented: “Long-term investments by the Harbour and by Stena Line have significantly enhanced the competitiveness of the Belfast- Cairnryan route. This, coupled with a record performance on the Belfast-Heysham route, helped drive the number of freight vehicles passing


through the port to 432,000, up 21% since 2011.” Container traffic


fell back


by 5% to 123,000 boxes as consumer demand continued to soften. Construction-related trades also continued


decline, with timber imports falling for the seventh year in a row. More positively, there was some indication of a recovery in activity in Northern Ireland’s manufacturing activity, with steel imports at their highest since 2008. Joe O’Neill, the port’s commercial director, pledged:


“Belfast Harbour will continue to pursue major marine projects such as our development of an offshore wind farm terminal for Dong Energy.” The port formally handed


to


over the new £50 million terminal, where turbines


the West of Duddon Sands wind farm in the Irish Sea will


for


be pre-assembled, to Dong and ScottishPower Renewables in February. The largest single investment in Belfast Harbour’s history, the 20 hectare facility includes 480 metres of deep- water quayside. Work on the wind farm,


which will be one of the world’s largest offshore sites when it


Issue 2 2013 Belfast shows renewed energy


is commissioned in 2014, has already started and the port has received its first shipments of components. The first of more than 100 turbines, each with a rotor diameter of 120 metres, will depart the port this summer for erection at the site. Maersk has meanwhile changed its feeder schedules


to improve service into


Belfast. It said regular delays in Rotterdam had made services “irregular and unpredictable”. The carrier adjusted its twice- weekly butterfly service to and


from Felixstowe and


Rotterdam and a direct weekly service to and from Rotterdam in January.


25


Direct every day between Ireland and the USA.


Representatives of ScottishPower and Dong Energy flank Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Len O’Hagan, Belfast Harbour chairman and First Minister Peter Robinson at the port’s handover of its new offshore wind farm terminal


Irish fish in favour


Several requests from seafood wholesalers at London’s Billingsgate market arrived on Simon Tobin’s desk in Dublin during February as the horsemeat scandal escalated. Irish mackerel and white fish is in demand as public appetite wanes for burgers and beef lasagne. Tobin, MD of Tobin Shipping


& Transport came into the business three years ago aſter sales management roles at Eddie Stobart and TDG. “I’ve tried to apply some of the disciplines I learned there to a family firm,” he explains. The company was founded


by his grandfather in Wicklow in 1946 as a traditional haulier but has more of a 3PL focus today, running just


supplies


are trucked via Holyhead to distribution hubs in the UK Midlands, typically


where broken they are down into


smaller consignments for delivery to RDCs or direct to store. For destinations further


afield, logistics can handicap Ireland’s sought-aſter food manufacturers. Companies shipping waste to Asia for reprocessing - who are among Ireland’s largest exporters - can out-muscle the rest of the market in the fight for empty boxes. “I had to turn down a recent enquiry


business from India eight of its own


trucks and six Sprinter vans. Fresh and chilled food is a speciality, and Tobin


a number of UK retailers with cheeses and preserves, right across the board from Lidl to Harrods. Full or part loads


involving eight containers a week of milk powder. Repositioning was going to cost me €300 per box and I couldn’t guarantee availability,” Tobin says. But the developers of the new


London Gateway terminal have said they will promote feeder services to Dublin, which he hopes could help rebalance the market.


151915 Aer Lingus CARGO JUNIOR 250x178.indd 1 12/03/2013 12:59


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