MARITIME 1
fleetMaritime: IRISH SHIPPING & FREIGHT Compiled by Howard Knott Edited by Jarlath Sweeney email: maritime@fleet.ie
Volume 6, No. 1 Spring 2011
DFDS Seaways rapid exit brings an ‘interesting’ year to a close on the Irish Sea
O
n 13 January DFDS Seaways issued the shock announcement that, with effect from the end of January 2011 it would close down the twice daily Dublin to Birkenhead and daily Dublin to Heysham routes. Th is announcement followed that of the sale of its services operated out of Belfast to the same Ports, to Stena Line. DFDS Seaways continues to operate these services, twice daily to each Port, pending clearance of the deal from the UK Competition Authorities.
which had a 300 export vehicle daily capacity. Closure of the DFDS Seaways Dublin Services brings to an end a link established by Merchant Ferries in 1998 and will reduce trailer capacity on the Irish Sea central corridor by 21%. While Liverpool bound cargo can be accommodated on parallel routes operated by P & O Ferries and Seatruck or on the Irish Ferries and Stena Cruise Ferry routes to Holyhead, there is no ready alternative for traffic destined for the Heysham catchment area. Daily export trailer
DFDS Seaways entered the Irish Sea market some six months earlier taking over the Norfolk Line services from Maersk Line. There are some mutual shareholdings between the companies, while DFDS also has a small shareholding in the Clipper Group who operate the Seatruck Ferry services. In announcing the sale of the Belfast based services, DFDS CEO Niels Smedegaard said; “The Irish routes we took over in conjunction with the purchase of Norfolk line have, in spite of the recent impressive efforts by everybody employed on the routes, in the last two years lost more than €30 million. Given the depressed economies a turnaround of the activities, without structural solutions, is not realistic. On this basis we have decided to scale back our activities and sell the two routes from Belfast.” Stena Line's CEO, Gunnar Blomdahl added: "We will continue to develop the routes and look at the capacity we will need in the future. During the last 10 years we have invested approximately £250 million in our Irish Sea operations and, going forward, we will continue to invest in the development of our services between Ireland and Britain". The acquisition of these routes will add approximately 600 trailer a day capacity to Stena's routes exBelfast, though this figure will be somewhat offset by the closing of their route from Larne to Fleetwood, bought from P & O Ferries in 2004,
66 FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 11
service from Larne to Heysham. Th is involved a shift of one vessel from the Warrenpoint to Heysham route bringing that route back to a two sister ship operation similar to that the Line operates out of Dublin. Looking forward to 2011, Stena Line has not yet announced their programme of Dun Laoghaire -Holyhead sailings. Any changes to the vessels and capacities deployed on other routes could be facilitated by the delivery of new tonnage on the North Sea. The line is planning to move its Scottish base from Stranraer to a new terminal at Cairnryan in September 2011, considerably reducing voyage times ex-Belfast. On direct services to Continental Europe, Cobelfret has introduced its latest jumbo-sized vessels as part of an Irish Sea/North Sea rotation. As these vessels have limited passenger certificates, they mainly carry unaccompanied trailers and containers. Cobelfret maintain twice weekly services to Zeebrugge and to Rotterdam and feed traffic not only onto road and rail services, but also onto their own and DFDS services to Scandinavia and into the Baltic as well as Transfennica services to Spain and Portugal.
capacity in the corridor will be reduced from 2300 to 1900. The announcement by Fastnet Lines that their vessel ‘Julia’ will operate on a year round basis does slightly increase trailer capacity in the Southern Corridor to 471 a day.
2010 was a surprising good year for passenger carryings on the Cruise ferries, Ro-Pax Ferries and the Fast Craft . Th is was due to a combination of winning passenger and car traffic from the airlines where baggage restrictions and airport delays caused so much frustration and weather events, including the Volcanic Ash Cloud and the extremely cold weather that topped and tailed the year. There are indications already that 2011 will be a better tourism year and this will reinforce the increasing traffic trend.
A further significant development in 2010 was the opening by Seatruck of a twice daily truck ferry
FLEETTRANSPORT | DEC 10/JAN 11 63
MARITIME 11
Irish Sea Ferries with HGV capacity
Routes and Frequencies 2011 FROM
TO
Line
Frequency (each way) Average vessel capacity (LM)
Website: www.
Larne
Cairnryan (Scotland)
P & O Ferries
Up to 7x daily
1800
poferries.com
Larne
Heysham (UK)
Seatruck(2)
2 x daily
1057
Seatruckferries.com
Belfast
Stranraer (Scotland)
Stena
Up to 7 x daily
825
Stenaline.ie
Belfast
Heysham (Lancashire)
Stena(1)
2 x daily
1562
Stenaline.ie
Belfast
Birkenhead (UK)
Stena(1)
2 x daily
2885
Stenaline.ie
Warrenpoint
Heysham (UK)
Seatruck(2)
2 x daily
1830
Seatruckferries.com
Dublin
Liverpool (England)
P & O Ferries
3 x daily
1860
Poferries.com
Dublin
Liverpool (England)
Seatruck(2)
2 x daily
1830
Seatruckferries.com
Dublin
Holyhead (Wales)
Irish Ferries
2 x daily
4076
Irishferries.com
Dublin
Holyhead (Wales)
Stena
4 x daily
2700
Stenaline.ie
Rosslare
Fishguard (Wales)
Stena
2 x daily
1300
Stenaline.ie
Rosslare
Pembroke (Wales)
Irish Ferries
2 x daily
2060
Irishferries.com
Cork
Swansea (Wales)
Fastnet
Up to 4 x weekly
700
Fastnetline.com
1. These Services were purchased by Stena from DFDS and are subject to approval from UK Competition Authority. 2. Seatruck services are operated on vessels with driver capacity limited to 12. 3. Stena Line schedules are not yet fi nalised for 2011.
Ireland to Continent - Year round Direct Ferry Services 2011 FROM
TO
LINE
Frequency(each way) Average vessel capacity (LM)
Website www.
Dublin
Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
Cobelfret
2 x weekly
Up to 4000
Cobelfret.com
Dublin
Zeebrugge (France)
Cobelfret
2 x weekly
Up to 4000
Cobelfret.com
Rosslare
Cherbourg
Celtic Link Ferries
3 x weekly
2250
Celticlinkferries.com
Rosslare
Cherbourg(1)
Irish Ferries
3 x weekly(1)
1160
Irishferries.com
1. Note that this frequency is reduced during the Summer tourist season to accommodate Rosslare/Roscoff sailings.
FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 11
67
MARITIME 111
PORT PORTALS Irish Continental Group has announced the sale of its ferry 'Pride of Bilbao' to the Volume 5, No. 4 Winter 2010 St. Petersburg based St. Peter Line for €37.7 million. The vessel to be re-named 'Princess Anastasia' will operate the Line’s Stockholm to St. Petersburg service alongside former DFDS vessel, 'Princess Maria' (pictured).
Trade and Transport' and matters discussed will include: Technological Developments that will facilitate Trade and Transport, the importance of the carbon footprint in Trade and Transport, and, garnering and disseminating Knowledge in the electronic age. For more details, contact: aoifetrant@nauticalenterprise.ie ‘Cabin Fever’ vessel Johanna Lucretia will take up a new role as the ‘Irish’ participant in the 2011 Tall Ships Race. The event fleet, which will be hosted by the Port of Waterford and Waterford City Council, will spend four days from June 30th in Waterford, following a stopover in Belfast. The British registered ‘Johanna Lucretia’ will be crewed by Irish Trainees and will seek to replace the ‘Asgard II’ lost in the Bay of Biscay in 2009.
MAN-power at the Boot 2011 The Engines & Components division of MAN Truck & Bus AG presented its powerful, compact common-rail diesel engines for yachts and recreational craft at the ‘Boot 2011’ Boat show held in Dussledorf last month. With its sixcylinder in-line, V8 and V12 engines, MAN comprehensively covers a power spectrum with outputs from 730 hp (537 kW) to 1,800 hp (1,324 kW). Innovative measures taken on the engines ensure compliance with International emission regulations.
Irish Ferries voted Irish Best Ferry Company' twice! Mezeron Line has recently upgraded its Liverpool to Douglas, Isle of Man service with the introduction of two Lo-Lo ships operating a six night’s weekly service in each direction. Belfast based, Mezeron Agents advise that the conventional service direct to the island leaving Belfast each Wednesday will continue to operate, but that Irish based shippers can now also avail of the new service using the three times weekly Coastal Container Line service from Belfast to Seaforth Terminal in Liverpool which Coastal shares with Mezeron. The dominant Isle of Man operator, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company has expressed serious concerns that the arrival of the new service will undermine their profitability and might lead to the curtailment of passenger services. Celtic Link Ferries has chartered its ferry 'Finnforest' to Italian Operator, SNAV running on its service linking Naples and Palermo. The Celtic owned near sister to 'Finnforest' and veteran of both the Falklands War and the Line’s Rosslare to Cherbourg service is believed to be on charter to South American operators.
It's official! Irish Ferries is Ireland's favourite ferry company on the double! In the space of just one day, the 'best ferry' title was awarded to the company at two separate prize giving ceremonies held in Dublin recently - both won against competition from all of the UK and Continental ferry companies operating into and out of Ireland. The first award - one that the company has won on a number of occasions in the past - was presented by the influential travel industry magazine Irish Travel Trade News based on responses received from Irish travel industry staff .
DFDS Seaways has switched its Rosyth to Zeebrugge Ferry service from Ro-Pax to a freight only operation and from 1 January operates four round trips a week. Th is gives Irish based International hauliers good Landbridge connections using the P & O Ferries or Stena Scott ish services ex-Larne or Belfast.
Later on the same day, at an inaugural awards ceremony hosted by the Irish Travel Agents Association, the company was again called to the podium to receive their Best Ferry Company award, also voted upon by staff in each travel agentís office up and down the country.
EU backed SKEMA/PROPS workshop for Dublin. Cork based Nautical Enterprise has organised a one day workshop to take place at the Port centre in Dublin Port on 1 March. The theme will be 'Economic Recovery through
Delighted with their success, Irish Ferries Marketing Director Tony Kelly commented, "our staff can be doubly proud of their achievement ñ the fi rst time that any ferry company has taken two top awards on the same day.î"
68
FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 11
Coastlink to stage three Conferences in 2011 The shortsea container shipping organisation Coastlink Network is to stage three Conferences in 2011, providing its members and interested parties with expanded opportunities for networking and enabling it to cover a wider range of subjects, both technically and geographically. Starting the ball rolling will be Coastlink Hamburg 2011, which will take place at the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski on 19 & 20 April. Since 2004, Coastlink has held conferences in Ireland, the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden and Estonia but never in Germany. On 15 & 16 June, the second Conference will take place in Liverpool. The fi rst day will be on board the Mersey ferry Royal Daffodil, which will transit the Manchester Ship Canal to Salford while the Merseyside Maritime Museum is the preferred venue for the second day. Coastlink’s Autumn Conference will be in Bilbao on 6 & 7 October. The preferred venue for this event, Bilbao’s magnificent Maritime Museum, has already been reserved for the gathering.
MARITIME 1V
Disappointing UK Growth Figures a Concern Irish Exporters Association (IEA)
T
he IEA in reviewing the recent release of the UK economic data, which shows a fall of 0.5% in GDP growth in the last quarter of 2010 stated, "The UK is of systemic importance to Irish export industry, accounting for €13.5 billion of our goods exports and €13.9 billion of our services exports last year, as well as providing Irish businesses with a supply of an equal amount of goods and services . Hence, this fall in economic growth in the last quarter of 2010 is of strong concern to all of the Irish export industry, and points to the need for a continued drive into the higher growth emerging markets, as well as the need to continue the drive to keep our exports competitive."
"Of equal importance to Irish business is the rise in inflation in the UK to 3.7%, which inevitably will work its way into the cost of manufacturing and consumer inflation in Ireland. Last year we imported approximately €26 billion in goods and services from the UK, a 3.7% inflation in these costs across 2011 will add approx €1 billion to Irish costs,” the statement outlined. John Whelan, IEA Chief Executive further commented. "The unexpected fall in UK economic growth, must act as a stark warning that the continuity of the Irish export growth, and an export led economic recovery is not guaranteed, and will require a tight control of all our costs, both wage
and non-wage costs, if we are to prevent a slide back in the Irish economy." "There is no bright side for Irish exporters in a weakening UK economic situation, as the recent poor economic results will probably result in some further weakening of the pound sterling is exchange rate against the euro, which will make our exports into the British market look less competitive," he concluded.
Galway Harbour Company consults on Development Plans
T
he Ga lway Harbour Company put its four stage development plan for the harbour on public view on 21/22 January. Th is viewing enabled members of the public and various Interest Groups to look at the detailed plans and to discuss them with representatives of the Harbour Company and their technical consultants. The Company intends to submit their fi nal version of the proposals to An Bord Pleanala in April for consideration under the Strategic Infrastructure development procedure. The application consists of 23.61 hectares of land reclamation. It will extend 917 metres out to sea providing 660 metres of quay berth with
vessels, fishing vessels and container carriers. A yacht Marina and Ro-Ro facilities are also envisaged.
a low tide depth there of up to 12 metres. The development would provide berthing facilities for general cargo vessels, oil tankers, passenger
A major feature of the development is the key role that movement of freight into and out of the Port by rail will play. As the Harbour Company envisages strong development in throughput of Bulk traffic for distribution within a catchment area within an Ennis/Athlone/ Ballina arc, this would tie in well with plans for development of the Western Rail Corridor through to Claremorris and linking into North Mayo, while the current Limerick link may make Galway Harbour a contender for shipping Zinc Ore from the planned Pallasgreen mine near Limerick.
Things are looking up in Belfast
B
elfast Harbour Company was quickly out of the traps in publishing its 2010 figures. Overall cargo tonnage through the Port grew by over 5% to stand at 16.5 million tonnes, though still below the 2007 figure. Bulk cargoes were the strong performers with grain and animal feed tonnages through the Port reaching the two million mark and reaffi rming Belfast harbour’s position as the island’s leading Port in this sector. Exports of stone for use in road construction in the south of England and on Continental Europe showed a 47% jump, but the highest volumes increase was in the tonnages of salt with an increase of 238% to reach 98,000 tonnes for the year. This
figure is a good indication of just how bad the road conditions became in Britain and Ireland during the winter of 2010. Speaking about the results, Belfast Harbour Commercial Director, Joe O’Neill (pictured) said: “It is a welcome sign that tonnages through the Port last year rose by a healthy 5.4%. We will continue to seek to support our customers by developing facilities and increasing trade through the Port, though we recognise that challenges persist in some sectors. Our expectation, however, remains that new marine facilities will be required to cater for long-term growth in Northern Ireland’s economy.”
FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 11
69