Dublin Port Company today published trade statistics for the first quarter of 2016 showing continued strong growth of 6.8% after last year’s record throughput of 32.8 million gross tonnes.
Total throughput for the three months to the end of March was 8.4 million gross tonnes with 1,790 ship arrivals, equivalent to 20 ships each day. Both imports and exports grew strongly with imports ahead by 6.0% and exports even stronger at 7.9%.
The largest parts of Dublin Port’s business are Ro-Ro freight trailers and Lo-Lo containers. Ro-Ro grew by 7.1% with 221,696 units in the first three months. Lo-Lo containers grew by 11.5% to 163,005 TEU reflecting growth in the domestic economy drawing imported goods from overseas markets.
The Port’s tourism business also performed very strongly with ferry operators including Irish Ferries, Stena Line and P&O increasing passenger volumes by 2.6% and tourist vehicle numbers by 6.3%.
Elsewhere in the Port’s tourism business, the cruise business started as early as January with three calls in the first quarter as a whole.
Dublin Port has the financial resources for this major infrastructure development programme having seen turnover grow by 7.8% to €77.7m last year and EBITDA grow by 14.0% to €49.3m. The Port has announced that it will pay a dividend of €10.9m, bringing the total dividend payment since 2007 to €89.5m.