FLEET MARITIME

Vol 18, No. 43 – WINTER 2022

SHIPPING & FREIGHT NEWSLETTER – Compiled by Howard Knott – howard@fleet.ie

Ferries capture rising passenger numbers

A recent study has shown that for the 2023 Summer tourist season Cruise Ferry and Ro-Pax ferry sailings into the ports of Rosslare, Dublin and Cork will reach one hundred per week. Capacity will be further enhanced by the introduction of larger tonnage on some routes.

The largest increase in passenger numbers is expected to arrive at Rosslare Europort. Brittany Ferries will replace the Viscentini standard Ro-Pax vessel ‘Connemara’ operating its Rosslare/Bilbao and Rosslare/Cherbourg services with the substantially larger e-Flexer ‘Galicia’. Stena Line will replace the chartered Freight Ferry ‘Seatruck Panorama’ with a vessel with significant passenger capacity ahead of the summer season enabling to offer six sailings with passenger and car capacity into Rosslare each week from Cherbourg. DFDS is expected to continue its current trial service of offering passenger accommodation on its Dunkirk to Rosslare service and a change in one vessel currently operating on the route would enable passengers to be accommodated aboard five sailings a week.

Following the sale of the Ro-Pax ferry ‘Epsilon by Italian owners Caronte & Tourist to the Polish Eurafrica Shipping company, in March 2022, it is unclear whether this vessel will remain in Irish Ferries service after the current bareboat charter agreement terminates this month. It has been speculated that an extension to the agreement might be reached enabling the vessel to remain with Irish Ferries until a date in spring 2023. The use of a replacement vessel with larger passenger facilities might mean that Irish Ferries may not have to use the high-speed ‘Dublin Swift’ on the Holyhead/Dublin route.

No vessel changes are expected on the long-established route linking Roscoff in Brittany and Cork Harbour operated by Brittany Ferries for 2023. Ahead of that season the Cork Port Company is in active discussions with

the ferry operator about the installation of Electric Vehicle plug-in Points at the Ringaskiddy Ferry Terminal.

Current estimates are that there will be approximately 114 weekly passenger carrying ferry arrivals in Republic of Ireland Ports in Summer 2023. All of these except for the fourteen sailings operated by Irish Ferries using the ‘Dublin Swift’ ferry will carry trailer traffic as well. Total passenger capacity aboard the vessels arriving at Irish Ports will be more than 140,000 each week and car capacity for 59,000 vehicles. The study does not include the capacity aboard the Stena Line and P&O vessels operating from Great Britain into Belfast and Larne ports.

Almost all ferry companies operating in European waters are reporting a significant uplift in passenger numbers with many services carrying numbers similar to those pre-Covid, and some doing even better. The problems in the car hire business with an inadequate

supply of cars throughout most of Europe has been a significant factor in moving tourists to taking their cars with them on ferries as, of course, have the congestion and luggage issues at many European airports. The reduction of the number of flights through major hubs including Amsterdam and Heathrow has been a further stimulus to ferry travel.

WB Yeats berthing Dublin

Brittany Ferries Armorique wearing new logo

Denmark based Clipper Group has sold its Seatruck Ferries holdings Ltd. Subsidiary to CLdN Group. Clipper Group’s main activity has been in the dry bulk cargo business and Seatruck has been its only Ro-Ro activity. The sale is subject to regulatory approval by the Irish Competition Authority, and this is expected to be in place before the year end.

Luxembourg based CLdN, has developed a significant presence in the Irish marketplace over the last thirteen years and now operates a five times weekly Dublin/Rotterdam service, a three times weekly Dublin/Zeebrugge service, twice weekly from Dublin to Santander along with a twice weekly Cork/Zeebrugge service. Connections are made across the terminal at Rotterdam and Zeebrugge to CLdN services to a range of Scandinavian and Iberian destinations including Gothenburg, Porto, and Esbjerg. Most vessels sailed on the Irish routes have a garage capacity of between 4,000 and 8,000 lane metres.

Seatruck was founded in 1996, commencing operations between Warrenpoint and Heysham and, following its takeover in 2002 by Clipper Group expanded to establish Dublin/Heysham and Dublin/ Liverpool services. Like the services operated by CLdN, Seatruck operates basically an unaccompanied trailer service, with very limited driver accommodation. The current Seatruck schedule offers sixteen sailings a week from Dublin to Liverpool, six a week between Dublin and Heysham and eleven sailings a week between Warrenpoint and Heysham.

The Seatruck fleet currently consists of eight vessels, two of which are chartered out, the ‘Seatruck Panorama’ sails for Stena Line from Rosslare to Cherbourg and the ‘Clipper Pennant’ sails for P&O from Dublin to Liverpool.

In a statement from CLdN announcing the acquisition it said: “The Seatruck operation will continue to run under the Seatruck Ferries brand with the existing management team lead by Alistair Eagles. Seatruck Ferries has shown great resilience through the challenges caused by COVID-19 and Brexit, where the company has consolidated its market-leading position on the Irish Sea. Operating profit improved in 2021 and earnings are expected to further improve in 2022 as the joint impacts of COVID-19, Brexit and driver shortages are expected to accelerate growth in the unaccompanied trailer sector”.

The only overlap between the CLdN and Seatruck services is on the Liverpool/ Dublin leg of the CLdN Santander/ Liverpool/Dublin operation. In making the Liverpool call CLdN has used the stevedoring and Terminal facilities operated by P&O at the Port. (As an aside, the 1998 built Ro-Ro vessel ‘Arrow’, a vessel that was in the ownership of and sailed for Seatruck prior to the building of the first four vessels of its current fleet in 2008, has recently been bought by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company IoMSP for a reported €9 million. The vessel has been chartered over several years as a back-up on its Douglas/Belfast service. Another recent sale was the former CLdN vessel ‘Valentine’ which has, for the last year been on charter to the Interislander service, operated by New Zealand’s Kiwirail has now been bought by that company).

Bounce back in Irish Sea calls by Cruise Liners CLdN to acquire Seatruck Ferries from Clipper Group

As the 2022 Cruise call season draws to a close a high degree of satisfaction is reported by those involved in the first full year of transferring most of the cruise calls that would have been made to Dublin Port to the Dublin Bay Anchorage off Dun Laoghaire. Over 80 vessels anchored there, transferring passengers to and from Dun Laoghaire using ship’s tenders. Most took coach tours also took the Dart suburban rail to the city and beyond and others stayed in the town. Several smaller vessels, mostly of a similar size to the Car Ferries that had operated the Dun Laoghaire/holyhead route before the arrival of the Stena hSS ferry, moored alongside the Carlisle Pier within the harbour, while other expedition type vessels called to Dublin Port close to the Point Village. All indications are that the arrangements worked well, and the operators hope for another successful year in 2023.

The Stena Ports owned Holyhead Port welcomed thirty-seven Cruise liners in summer 2022 with a total of 55,000 passengers on board using a similar anchoring off arrangement. However, Stena Line Ports has announced that in 2023 cruise liners will again be able to berth directly in the port again. This being made possible due to the conclusion of a deal to buy the former aluminium site in Holyhead, that also includes the multi-purpose deep water terminal at the port being taken over by the Swedish port operator. This will allow the company the ability to open the berth for cruise liners again.

Commenting on the expansion of the company’s facilities at Holyhead Port, Ian Davies, Head of UK Port Authorities & Stena Line Ports said: “The new deep-water jetty will provide an excellent option for cruise operators that plan on providing their passengers with the opportunity to explore the fabulous Welsh coastline and Snowdonia National Park next year. We look forward to returning to pre-pandemic levels when the jetty was last in operation with 52 cruise ships calling into the port in 2018, providing passengers with the ability to use Holyhead as convenient base to explore this picturesque part of the country.”

iona 2, typical of the cruise vessels visiting Irish ports in 2022.

Shipping Consultants, Drewry, has issued a set of figures which indicate that, except for freight rates for containers being shipped in Transatlantic trades, freight rates are dropping fast from the peak that they reached in summer 2021. At that stage there was massive Port congestion, mainly at Far Eastern and US West Coast Ports, but also at ports in Northwest Europe including Rotterdam and hamburg.

The drop in rates reflects an overall drop off in demand for consumer goods in Europe, while in the US the massive delays in vessels being worked at West Coast Ports have been reduced by the diversion of many ships to Ports on the Atlantic Coast. This has meant that containers are moving more freely

Deep Sea shipping rates continue to head south

CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci operated on Asia/Europe services

end to end which speeds the equipment turnaround and enables vessels to operate more efficiently. Significant difficulties do remain with unpredictable closures at Chinese Port cities as Covid-19 lockdowns are imposed with no advance notice.

Drewry reported that the average freight rate on all deep-sea markets for a 40ft. dry container on 6 October 2022 was $3,686 which is 64% lower than the same week in 2021, but this rate remains significantly higher than cargo owners were paying pre-Covid-19. The average rate in 2019 was $1,420, 160% lower than the current rate.

In the first week of October average freight rates on the Shanghai to Rotterdam leg dropped by 13% or $717 to $4,274 per container, while in the reverse direction the rate was $967, a drop of 4% in the week. Though rates on North Atlantic services did increase slightly during the week, Drewry expects them to fall significantly over the coming few weeks.

Two other significant factors in the reduction in cost of the seaborne leg of International Supply Chains is the reduction in fuel costs with the price of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil dropping in the last four months from just over $1,000 a tonne to $620, with other fuels following a similar pattern, and the drop-in vessel charter rates as the Lines can make more effective use of their fleet. Added to that is the fact that significant volumes of new tonnage are about to come onto the market following a deluge of orders from shipowners over the last two years.

Samskip and CLdN cut carbon from vessels

European door-to-door shipping and transport company, Samskip has commenced carbon capture systems aboard two of its container vessels. The 803 TEU ‘Samskip Endeavour’ which normally sails on the Ireland/Rotterdam service, and the similar ‘Samskip Innovator’ operating North Sea routes, both currently operate on bio-fuel, which already reduces its CO2 emission levels by 90% compared with conventional fuels.

Due for commissioning in early 2023, each Samskip installation will feature a gas cleaning unit behind the ship funnel, with recovered CO2 pumped to a 10mW CO2 battery set, housed in ISO tank containers and carried on deck. Charged during the voyage, these batteries are unloaded in port, with the system installers Value Maritime trunking them to CO2 consumers such as greenhouses for discharge and use to stimulate fruit and vegetable growth, then returning them empty for the next voyage.

Value Maritime’s Commercial manager, Laurens Visser said that with such installations Ship Operators can remain compliant while using lower cost, higher-sulphur fuel, for example. Other operators may be planning for future regulations on CO2 and want to ensure that the technology they choose has been proven in service.

Like Samskip’s ‘Samskip Endeavour’, another regular caller to Dublin Port is CLdN Brexit Buster, the 8,000-lane metre, ‘Delphine’. The 2018 built vessel will, in December 2022, be fitted with a pair of tilting Rotor Sails. With this technology the operators expect to achieve a fuel and emission saving of between 7 and 10%. CLdN will evaluate the Rotor sails in operation and expects to then fit them to many of the other existing vessels in its fleet along with the vessels currently under construction. The company has now placed an order for two further vessels of a similar design to the Delphine for delivery in 2025 and incorporating a technically advanced powertrain.

These new vessels, built in South Korea, will be equipped with two LNG dual fuel engines as well as two electric propulsion motors. In full electric mode the ship could achieve a cruising speed of 16 to 17 knots. CLdN has stated that both ships will be future proofed to allow expansion or integration of technical advancements as time moves on. Compared with Delphine before the Rotor Sails are fitted, the new vessels will further reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by 40% and be NOx TIER111 compliant.

CLdN Delphine will be fitted with Rotor Sails.

Dublin Port makes progress both above and below the surface

In spring 2022 cargo owners shipping containers on services operating through Dublin Port were experiencing extreme difficulties. This was particularly the case on cargo moving to and from Deep Sea markets and using feeder services to connect with hub ports in Europe.

For these cargoes the port congestion in Asian and European locations disrupted shipping schedules proved very difficult for export cargo owners to plan delivery of containers to the Port for shipping and leading to severely congested terminals and the need to impose demurrage charges. Shippers using containers for European traffic were also caught up in delays. Despite this, however, cargo volumes shipped through the port continued to increase as Covid-19 lockdowns eased.

Major works were being undertaken on the internal road network within the port and the Dublin Port Company has now completed work on the first phase of the Dublin Inland Port located between the M50 and M2. This facility was opened in February 2022 and is being operated by the Irish Continental Group’s Terminal Division (DFT). That company also got a vehicle booking system fully into operation, planning to eliminate queues at the terminal gates and to move containers more quickly.

As the year has progressed the road developments have been completed and significant volumes of empty containers have been transferred from the Port estate to outside locations, reducing congestion in terminals. Both Marine Terminals (MTL) which operate on the South Bank Quay site, and the DSG Terminal, formerly known as Portroe, are in the final stages of installing and implementing Vehicle Booking Systems. These terminals have also extended their gate opening hours, opening at 05.00, Monday to Friday, closing at 18.00 in the case of MTL and 18.30 at DSG. Both terminals are open between 08.00 and 12.00 on Saturday, while DSG is also open between 13.00 and 20.00 on Sunday. DFT opens its gates between 08.00 and 19.00, Monday to Friday and 07.00 to 13.00 on Saturday.

Through discussions facilitated by the Irish Exporters Association and directly, several cargo owners are in active discussion with the terminal operators and shipping lines to find ways to further smoothen the flow of goods through the port and to extend the effective use of such facilities as the external empty container storage facilities.

The Dutch based specialist dredging company, Van Oord has now commenced Capital Dredging work to facilitate the creation of two new riverside berths in Dublin Port. This work is a part of Dublin Port Company’s Masterplan2 project, and the areas being dredged all lie within the current port walls and comprise the creation of the new Berth 52 and Berth 53, along with localised widening of the navigation channel in the vicinity of the Poolbeg Oil Jetty. The dredged material is being dumped in a designated area close to the Burford Bank, some 6.7 km from the Port entrance. The building of the new berths will enable larger container vessels to operate to and from Dublin Port to meet growing traffic needs.

Changing of the Guard at Waterford Port

Having completed A seven year term as CEO of Waterford Port Frank Ronan passed the baton to David Sinnott on 1 October. Announcing the change, the Port Company Chairman Des Whelan said: “The Board of Directors look forward to welcoming David Sinnott to Port of Waterford. The Board is confident that David will continue to build on the progress of the port in recent years. David has the relevant experience and skills to provide strong stewardship at the Port and we wish him every success. The Board and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Frank Ronan for his excellent work at port of Waterford over the last seven years and we wish him the very best for the future”.

Prior to taking up his new role David Sinnott had held several roles with Carl Zeiss Vision including that of Director of European Supply Chain.