Dublin Port trade rises in April

Trading activity at Dublin Port rose for the fifth month in a row in April, new figures showed today.

Dublin Port Company said throughput rose 5.4 per cent for the month compared to a year earlier to 2.33 million tonnes. Growth was driven by exports, which were up 13.5 per cent on April last year at 940,886 million tonnes, and imports were up 0.6 per cent to 1.39 million tonnes.

The company said unitised trade, which represents about 80 per cent of Dublin Port's throughput, was 12.8 per cent higher than in April. It was also 11.4 per cent ahead in the yesar to date compared to the same period in 2009.

Ferry passengers increased by 40 per cent to 207,066, as the continued travel disruption caused by the ash boosted numbers. However, even excluding the ash impact, ferry passengers were still 20 per cent ahead of last year's figures.

Trade cars were 67.6 per cent higher than April last year, in line with the increasing car sales.

"Whatever way you look at Ireland's current economic predicament there is only one solution: we've got to trade our way out of the problem and the figures from Dublin Port showing a trend of steady, incremental, increased trading activity for a sustained period of five months are encouraging in this regard," said chief executive Enda Connellan.

Chief financial officer Michael Sheary said Dublin Port Company was becoming more confident it would come close to 28 million tonnes of trade this year.

"At this level of trade Dublin Port's throughput will be just under 10% lower than our historic high trade levels in 2007," he said.

"Continued increases in throughput will be dependent on a number of factors including improved consumer sentiment for imports and the strength of the euro against Sterling and renewed growth in the economies of our main trading partners. Of paramount importance too in stimulating economic recovery will be increased competitiveness throughout the economy."