14 services


Issue 2 2018 - FBJ


Stena ponders Brexit changes


A senior Stena Line executive has suggested that the ferry operator could consider operating


in Wales, England and Scotland, including the important Holyhead-Dublin,


Liverpool- to Ireland


direct from Continental ports. In an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 19 October, chief communications officer Ian Hampton said that if Brexit led to problems with trade between Ireland and the UK, one of the implications could be fewer Stena Line sailings to and from UK ports although the operator would be reluctant to take such a step. All Stena’s Irish Sea services are currently to and from ports


Dublin and Cairnryan-Belfast services. Other operators, including


CLdN and Irish Ferries, already operate direct Ireland-Continent services.


While they have


until recently been seen as something of a niche market compared with the much busier ‘UK landbridge’ routes between Ireland and Europe via the UK, a growing number of freight operators are using direct Continental services. The motivation is not impending


Brexit but truck driver shortages and increasingly tough driver’s hours rules, as well as driving bans in countries such as France. While


the direct Ireland/


Continent services are generally slightly slower than operating via the UK, putting unaccompanied trailers on such services saves having to find scarce drivers and allows freight to travel at times when weekend truck bans are imposed. In the interview, Mr Hampton


also warned that hold-ups resulting from Brexit could lead to food supplies to retailers being disrupted.


///IRELAND We’re ready for anything – including growth, says Dublin port


Dublin Port Company chief executive Eamonn O’Reilly said that despite the uncertainty caused by Brexit, trade continued to grow “at an extraordinary rate”. By the end of 2018, traffic


growth over the past six years was set to reach 36%, outstripping the port’s long- term Masterplan growth rate of 3.3% per annum. The port would accelerate its capital investment programme to ensure that there was sufficient capacity for future growth. He explained: “After decades of underinvestment in port


We’re going nowhere, says port boss


Dublin Port Company chief executive Eamonn O’Reilly has reacted angrily to suggestions by the president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI)


that the port


of Dublin should move its operations elsewhere.


O’Reilly also argued that


while such suggestions were not new, they failed to address basic questions such as where the port would be moved to, what size any new operation should be, how it could be financed and, ultimately, what


However, said O’Reilly: “This study was prompted by the


Progressive Democrats’


entirely daft ‘A New Heart for Dublin’ suggestion that Dublin Port could be sold for up to €30 billion, a new port built elsewhere and a new


infrastructure, we need to invest €1 billion in the next ten years. This year alone, we are investing €132m, guided by our Masterplan 2040. “While we continue to


“nothing should be done at a policy level to block either the proposed expansion of Dublin Port or the proposed development of Bremore [a mooted new deepwater port near Balbriggan to the north of Dublin] at this stage.


Since


2009, we have continued to expand the capacity of Dublin Port and (for very good reasons) nothing whatsoever has happened to progress with the development of new port facilities at Bremore.” O’Reilly added: “Nothing


has changed in the nine years since 2009 to change my view that Indecon was correct in its assessment.” He concluded: “Given your


In an open letter to David


Browne, O’Reilly said that suggestions published in the Irish Independent on 6 October that the port should be moved lacked “analytical rigour”.


the true benefits would be. The Dublin Port National


Development Plan Study Report prepared for the Department of Transport did suggest moving the port.


city within a city built on the vacated lands as you are now suggesting.” O’Reilly pointed out that


among the conclusions in the Indecon report was that


position as president of the RIAI council, I am disappointed that that you would choose the RIAI Conference to put forward the viewpoint that Dublin Port should be moved. Unless backed up by serious consideration of the issues I listed above, I consider your suggestion as both mischievous and reckless. Coming from you in your position as president of the representative body of an important profession it carries unwarranted weight.” Dublin is one of Europe’s


more space-constrained ports and the situation has prompted a number of suggestions for


work on the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) Project, we will shortly bring our second major strategic infrastructure project to An Bord Pleanála to ensure that we have a pipeline of consented projects ready to go.” He added that work had


also started on construction of primary border control infrastructure “to ensure that Dublin Port is prepared for whatever Brexit might throw at us. Our preparations are closely co-ordinated with the various State agencies who will have to carry out inspections on UK freight once Brexit happens. Having come through the worst of recessions from 2008, our volumes are already 23% higher than they were in 2007. In the timescale of port infrastructure


improvement, some of them more radical than others. These include moving activities such as long-term container storage to satellite areas away from the existing operational area. Moving complete port


operations lock stock and barrel has rarely been attempted in recent history in Europe although there are a few precedents. These include the creation of a new harbour area for Helsinki outside the city boundaries and consequent closure of much of the old operation inside the urban area. There have also been examples


projects, we need to press ahead with our infrastructure projects notwithstanding the uncertainties.” For the first nine months


of 2018, the port saw cargo volume growth of 4.7% to 28.4m gross tonnes, with imports up 6.0% and exports increasing by 3.0%. Some 82% of the port’s


volumes are ro ro trailers or containers. Ro-ro volumes grew by 4.3% to 768,000 units in the first three quarters while containers grew by 5.5% to 544,000 TEU. Imports of new trade


vehicles grew by 6.0% to 78,000. Liquid fuel imports were up


9.3% to 3.4m tonnes while bulk solid commodities increased by 15.9% to 1.7m tonnes. The latter increase was due, in particular, to increased imports of animal feeds due to the combination of a very dry summer following on from a harsh winter.


of ports setting up new operations that in time have come to dwarf the


‘parent’ port – Grimsby’s


creation of Immingham in the early years of the 20th Century is one notable example. However, the existing port of Grimsby has continued to operate alongside its much larger offspring. Tilbury, spawned by the Port of


London Authority at roughly the same time is another example, and one where the original port did eventually cease most commercial cargo handling operations. However, this process took place over many decades and was in no sense a planned move.


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