26 | FLEET MARITIME
FLEET MARITIME
Vol 18, No. 1 – sPRING 2022
Shipping & Freight Newsletter – Compiled by Howard Knott – howard@fleet.ie
Dover Straits operations are very much alive and kicking As January 2021 dawned and Brexit became a reality, there was a high level of anxiety among all businesses involved in logistics operations moving across the Dover Straits as to what would happen as the new controls came into play. Partly due to the high level of product shipping and stocking in the preceding months, freight volumes through the corridor were significantly down. Much of the Irish Landbridge traffic was diverted to new and existing direct routes to and from the continent, but as the year went on, shipping volumes both by Cross-Channel ferries and on Eurotunnel services recovered somewhat. Part of the reason behind the recovery was the deferral by the British Authorities of many of the Customs and other Brexit inspired goods control measures that should have been carried out at British ports. This was done to give British traders more time to get their back-office systems in place to develop and produce the required documents. The lack of major congestion around the Channel ports also made it easier for vehicles including those involved in Irish Landbridge freight to keep to schedule, and to match, if not beat the schedules of the new and expanded direct ferry services between Ireland and French ports. It also became clear that freight rates charged to road transport operators
w w w. R o s s l a r e e u r o p o r t . i e FLEETTRANSPORT | FEB - MAR 22
made using the direct ferries more expensive than the Landbridge for many locations. Despite the very significant reduction in passenger traffic on all ferry routes due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, suitable ferries for these longer routes were in short supply, pushing up the charter costs of any available vessels. Irish Ferries took the Isle of Inishmore off the Rosslare/Pembroke route and following her customisation introduced her to launch its new Dover/Calais service in July. At the same time DFDS brought in its first e-Flexer vessel to displace Calais Seaways. That vessel was subsequently bought by Irish Ferries, entering service in January 2022 as the Isle of Innisfree. By then Irish Ferries had bought a further vessel, the Cuidad de Mahon, which had, following her launch in 2000 as Northern Merchant, operated on the Norfolk Line Dover Straits service until 2006. The 2,000 lane metre vessel is due to enter Irish Ferries service in February 2022. With the three vessels in operation, Irish Ferries can then offer fifteen sailings each way on the Dover/Calais route, making it a very strong Landbridge package for Irish freight forwards and hauliers. In January 2022, Guangzhou Shipyard
in China launched the P&O Pioneer, the first of a pair of double-ended ferries built for P&O Ferries which will enter service on the Dover/Calais route in September 2022. Sister ship, P&O Liberte is planned to enter service in March 2023. Each of these vessels has significantly better environmental credentials than any of the current Dover Straits vessels. Though DFDS did introduce a daily Sheerness/Calais service in August 2021 as a congestion busting operation, it remains the only new service that sets out to displace traffic from Dover Straits services. Some schedule changes have been made on North Sea services linking Britain with Benelux countries but there has been nothing dramatic. 1 January, 2022 should have been the date on which the full range of Border controls on traffic moving between EU and Britain took effect and there were concerns in the lead up to this that these would prompt significant delays at Channel Ports. In the event some of these changes were implemented while others were pushed out further into 2022 and no changes were made regarding island of Ireland/Britain arrangements pending resolution of the Northern Ireland Protocol difficulties.
Dublin Port
