Dublin Port traffic back to 2016 levels due to Covid-19
Traffic through Dublin Port fell by 17% between April and the end of June with imports of new vehicles falling 65% and ferry passenger numbers down 78%.
The port company said the drop in the second quarter was less than had been feared following a decline in the month of April of -26.2%.
Dublin Port had already recorded a decline of 4.8% in the first quarter compared which had been attributed to Brexit stockpiling in the first quarter of last year but the declines steepened significantly in the second quarter as the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the country.
Combined trailers and container traffic fell by 13.5% to 321,000 units in the second quarter. Imports of new trade vehicles through the port between April and June period decreased by 64.9% to 9,900 and a significant decline appears inevitable for the rest of the year. There were no cruise ship calls to Dublin Port during the second quarter and none are anticipated for the remainder of the year.
Dublin Port’s Chief Executive, Eamonn O’Reilly said throughput for the full year would be back to where it was in 2016.
“We saw after the 2008 recession how rapidly the Irish economy can recover from a deep recession and we seem to be seeing some evidence of this resilience in recent months where a 26.2% fall-off in April was followed by a smaller decline of 20.5% in May and by a decline of just 5.5% in June.
