Irish ports recorded pre-Covid dip in traffic levels

Irish ports saw a decline in traffic even before the coronavirus pandemic hit our shores, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

The main ports in the State handled 12.8 million tonnes of goods in the final three months of 2019, down 3.7 per cent compared to the 13.3 million tonnes recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018.

On an annual basis, ports handled 53.2 million tonnes of goods in 2019, a decrease of 3.4 per cent compared to the 55 million reported a year earlier.

Goods forwarded from Irish ports totalled 17.8 million tonnes last year, while 35.4 million tonnes of goods were received.

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The number of vessels arriving in Irish ports in 2019 fell by 2.4 per cent with the gross tonnage of arriving vessels up 5.4 per cent to 278.8 million tonnes.

Dublin

Dublin port accounted for 63 per cent of all vessel arrivals here in the fourth quarter and just over half of the total tonnage of goods handled.

The UK accounted for over 40 per cent of the total tonnage handled in the final three months of the year, with other EU countries accounting for one-third of trade.

More than 2.6 million passengers passed through ports with the Dublin – Holyhead route accounting for 1.7 million of these. During the fourth quarter passenger traffic was down 0.4 per cent.

Cruise ships visited eight ports, with Dublin and Cork accounting for 53 per cent and 39.1 per cent respectively of such passengers.

Dublin Port Company last month reported a 4.8 per cent decline in the volume of goods in the first quarter, which it attributed to the Covid-19 crisis.

It warned that second-quarter tonnage figures would be significantly lower due to the pandemic.