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GB accompanied trucks lead Dublin Port decline

[ January 21, 2022   //   ]

Trade volumes at Dublin Port declined in the fourth quarter of 2021 by 10.3% to 9.1 million gross tonnes, while for the whole year the fell by 5.2% to 34.9 million gross tonnes.

The decline in the fourth quarter was driven by an 11.9% reduction in the number of containers and trailers year-on-year from a pre-Brexit spike of 418,000 units in Q4 2020, compared with only 369,000 units in Q4 2021. 

Some 83% of Dublin Port’s volumes are ro-ro and lo-lo and there were contrasting outcomes in these two modes in the full year 2021 results. The number of ro-ro units fell by -9.3% or 99,000 trailers but this was significantly offset by a 10.2% increase in lo-lo units or 43,000 containers

However, total unitised volumes (ro-ro and lo-lo combined) were down by 3.8% or 56,000 units.

Trade vehicle imports increased by 10.9% during 2021 to 82,000 notwithstanding space constraints which forced a number of ship arrivals to be cancelled during December, the busiest month in the year for Irish vehicle imports.

The port also noted that fewer ro-ro trailers are moving driver-accompanied. During 2021, their number declined by 90,000, contributing substantially to the overall decline in ro ro volumes of 99,000. This was concentrated on routes to the GB ports of Holyhead, Liverpool and Heysham where volumes declined by 187,000 (-21%) to 703,000. However, ro-ro volumes on direct routes to Continental Europe increased by 88,000 to 259,000. Whereas GB routes accounted for 64% of all 1.5 million unit loads (ro-ro and lo-lo combined) in 2020, they only accounted for 52% of the 1.4 million unit loads in 2021.

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