36 36 | FLEET MARITIME
FLEET MARITIME
Vol 17, No. 2 – summer 2021
Shipping & Freight Newsletter – Compiled by Howard Knott – howard@fleet.ie Shipping Lines The Stobart family owned WS Transportation has purchased Mezeron Shipping. The Ramsey, Isle of Man, based company has been operating a single general cargo vessel, with 277 gross tonnes, built in 1968. The Silver River has been on a regular Belfast/ Ramsey service for many years. WS Transportation was founded in 2014 and operates a substantial freight business through locations throughout Britain and in Ireland. Ports and Harbours Rosslare Port becomes a real “Europort” Wexford County Council has announced its decision on the preferred route for the Oilgate/Rosslare Europort link that will bring the complete route from Dublin to dual carriageway/ motorway standard. The 31 km link will utilise a mix of both the existing road corridor, which will be upgraded and a new corridor to bypass significant constraints on the existing corridor. In announcing the final go-ahead for the project Wexford County Council’s Director of Service Eamonn Hore, said, “The impacts of Brexit have significantly intensified Rosslare Europort’s strategic importance as a gateway for Irish trade and tourism. Even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, weekly continental ferry services at the Port have increased to 34 per week. Freight volumes with continental Europe increased by approximately 460% in the first half of 2021, and overall freight volumes, including Britain, have increased by 60%. The N11/ N25 Oilgate to Rosslare Harbour project aims to secure the future resilience of this critical international land-sea corridor by delivering a safe, sustainable, high-quality and cost-effective transport connection with Rosslare Europort”. Regular ferry sailings each week
w w w. R o s s l a r e e u r o p o r t . i e FLEETTRANSPORT | AUG 21
from Rosslare include, fourteen to South Wales, seven to Cherbourg, five to Dunkirk and two to Bilbao. In addition, the Trade Car business is served by Neptune Line. DFDS are planning to return the Dunkirk service to a daily frequency in the early autumn. Following the introduction of the EU COVID certificate, passenger numbers through the port have begun to increase with more significant numbers expected to pass through in August. The Border Control Post at Rosslare enabling Customs, Agriculture, Phytosanitary and Health Checks is now fully operational ahead of the anticipated EU/UK Trade Deal requirements coming fully into operation over the coming months. Killybegs Harbour is reported by ‘Coastal Shipping’ as having experienced a significant increase in reefer traffic during the early months of 2021. Prior to the entry into operation of the Brexit Trade Agreement would have added considerable costs to the business in which Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian trawlers landed their mackerel catches at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands from where the fish were shipped by reefer vessels to West Africa. Now these vessels are using the County Donegal port. Operation through Lerwick or another UK port would have involved importing and then exporting the fish through a ‘third country’. Dun Laoghaire Harbour, now under the control of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, is being used by Belgian Beam Trawlers to land catches from
Stena Horizon, Stena Foreteller and Visby alongside at Rosslare
the Irish Sea. The fish are then taken to their home market by trailer. Pre-Brexit, this operation had been carried out at Liverpool. Port of Cork and Cork and Harbour Chamber ran a workshop event on 15 July 15 to discuss how Cruise Tourism through Cobh could be re-started for the 2022 season. Conor Mowlds, the Port Commercial Manager told the meeting that vessel bookings for 2022 and succeeding seasons were strong and that the Port, along with all other partners in tourism development in the region, needed to develop a strong and very safe offering to entice Cruise tourists back. It is now likely that the Ringaskiddy Container port facility will not come into operation until early 2022 due to delays in completing building work there due to COVID-19. It remains unclear how an already very busy Dublin Port will be able to cope with significant numbers of cruise ship calls within the next few years as the port’s development projects, along with the trade developments arising from Brexit and significant increases in freight moving through the port have already caused significant issues. Fears have been expressed by Doug Bannister, CEO of Port of Dover, that the return of British Holiday Makers travelling through the Port could lead to a return of the delays for both tourists and hauliers at the port. In 2019 dover handled some 2.4 million trucks, 2 million tourist cars and 74,000 coaches. He told Reuters News Agency that, though Dover had so far managed to switch to operation of Custom checks efficiently following Britain leaving the EU, that was eased by the lack of tourist traffic to France during the COVID-19 pandemic. This had allowed staff more time to process paperwork. Mr. Bannister called on the UK Government to urgently
