Stena Line Irish ports buys two routes on the Irish Sea and takes over operations at the port terminals of Belfast, Birkenhead and Heysham

Copenhagen-based shipping group DFDS A/S has sold two routes on the Irish Sea to Stena Line. The sale covers the routes Belfast-Birkenhead and Belfast-Heysham, and includes two ro-ro vessels, the Hibernia Seaways and the Scotia Seaways, and two chartered ro-pax vessels.
In addition to this, Stena Line will take over operations at the port terminals of Belfast, Birkenhead and Heysham.
Turnover on the routes in 2009 was $93.4 million.
According to a company press release, improving profitability on the Irish Sea remains an important area of focus in DFDS' integration plan.
The release added that Irish Sea activities have in recent years made substantial losses due to considerable overcapacity on the market, as a result of a sharp decline in demand since 2008.
Operation of the routes between Dublin and the UK will continue as before, with two ro-pax ships on the route to Birkenhead and one ro-ro ship on the route to Heysham.
"The Irish routes we took over at the purchase of Norfolkline have, in the last two years, lost around a quarter of a billion Danish kroner. The prospect of continuing very difficult market conditions and overcapacity on the Irish Sea means it could be a long time before earnings improve significantly,"  said Niels Smedegaard, CEO of DFDS.