#MaidenCall – Arklow Vale made her maiden call to Dublin Port yesterday, the newbuild is the leadship of 10 general cargoships of the Royal Bodewes 5,100dwt Trader Series built to the design of the Dutch yard, writes Jehan Ashmore.

At almost 87m in length overall, Arklow Vale features a distinctive fuel energy-saving designed bow as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

The newbuild launched in September 2014, demonstrates the consistency of the company (50th anniversary this year) to operate with a modern fleet serving markets chiefly in northern Europe.

The leadship newbuild of 2,999grt had sailed from Gijon, northern Spain laden with slag. The cargo was discharged at Dublin Port alongside the South Bank Quay for the adjacent Ecocem plant.

Arklow Vale represents one of the largest single class orders in the history of the Co. Wicklow based shipping company yet the newbuilds are for the Dutch division Arklow Shipping Nederland B.V. based in Rotterdam. The Bodewes Trader Series or ‘V’ class ship given the naming nomenclature will also apply to her sisters which too will be registered at this major port.

The total fleet including the majority of Irish flagged vessels are currently comprised mostly of the ‘R’ class in which 15 such ships were also built in The Nederlands at the yard of Bijlsma Lemmer. The leadship Arklow Rose dates from 2002 while the final sister, Arklow Raven was completed in 2007. 

Last night Arklow Vale departed the capital 'light' (without cargo) and made the short coastal passage to Drogheda Port to dock this morning having anchored overnight. Further north in Belfast Harbour is where she made her maiden call to that port last month.

The second BodewesTrader series, Arklow View also previously reported to be undergoing sea-trials and to be named at an official ceremony not at the inland yard at Hoogezand but at Delfzijl.

The entry of Arklow Vale brings the Arklow Shipping total to 45 ships. They range from the 'R' class of 4,933dwt to the largest 'S' class bulkers of 34,905dwt. Across these ships, they can transport a variety of cargoes, among them in the carriage of bulk grain trades, steel rails, minerals and containers.

Dublin Port Company today published trade statistics for 2015 which show a record year for trade at Dublin Port, with growth year-on-year of 6.4%.

Total throughput for 2015 was 32.8 million gross tonnes with 7,166 ship arrivals in the year, exceeding the port’s previous record levels of 2007.

There was balanced growth between imports and exports in 2015. Imports were up 6.5% at 19.5 million gross tonnes, while exports were ahead by 6.4% at 13.3 million gross tonnes.

Summary of 2015 Trade Statistics

In previous years, growth in Dublin Port was driven by increasing exports. However, in 2015, the strengthening of domestic demand saw imports rise slightly faster than exports. Volumes in 2015 were 1.9m gross tonnes or 6.1% higher than in the Port’s previous record year of 2007 at the height of the boom.

There was particularly strong growth in imported trade vehicles with 102,149 vehicles imported, an increase of 25.8% in the year.

The unitised modes also grew very strongly with Ro-Ro units growing by 6.8% to 877,826 units. This is 145,000 more than came through Dublin Port in 2007. The volume in Lo-Lo containers increased by 8.6% to 614,226 TEU.

On the tourism side, 1.8 million ferry passengers travelled through the port in 2015, representing a 5.1% increase on last year and placing Dublin Port on a par with major national airports including Cork and Shannon.

In addition, 2015 was a strong year for the port’s cruise business with 149,000 visitors on 93 cruise ships, up 8.1% and 5.9% respectively on 2014. The strong growth was driven, in particular, by the port handling cruise ships greater than 300m in length for the first time.

Eamonn O’Reilly, Chief Executive, Dublin Port Company, said: “2015 was an exceptional year for Dublin Port with a 6.4% increase in cargo volumes. We have seen growth over the past three years of 17.3% and are now well ahead of where we were at the height of the boom in 2007.”

“It is timely that we received planning permission for the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project during 2015. This is the single largest port development project ever in the country and will help us to continue to cater for the expected high levels of growth in future years.”

“We also finalised debt facilities of €100m with the EIB during 2015 and succeeded in securing €23m in grant funding from the EU for our investment plans.”

“Our growth in recent years has been driven by the investment decisions of our major customers including Irish Ferries, Stena Line, Seatruck, CLdN, Doyle Shipping Group and Ecocem, and it is essential that we match these customers’ commitments by investing in nationally important port infrastructure in Dublin, the country’s premier port.”

#CruiseLiners - The Dublin Port Company has released a list of all the cruise liner visits expected this coming season.

The first of these, the MS Black Watch, was set to arrive at Berth 33 today (Wednesday 6 January). It marks the lone visit till 27 March with the arrival of the MV Azores, followed days later by the MV Balmoral. The Marco Polo and the super-sized Brilliance of the Seas will also arrive in late April.

But the cruise liners season proper gets under way in May with no fewer than 17 cruise visits by 10 separate liners scheduled for Dublin Port throughout the month.

May will also see one the port's busiest days for cruises, as the Azores, Astor and L'Austral will all arrive and depart on 17 May, as well as one of the biggest arrivals of the year, the 2,800-plus capacity Celebrity Silhouette on 31 May.

Download the PDF below to see the complete list of schedules cruise liner arrivals and departures for Dublin Port in 2016.

#WorldLargestPCTC - The World's largest pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) vessel, Höegh Target, with a capacity for 8,500 car equivalent units, departed Dublin Port this morning, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 14 deck-high PCTC newbuild docked yesterday at Ocean Pier in Alexandra Basin east. The caller to Dublin Port is the leadship of six new ‘Horizon’ class for Norwegian operator, Höegh Autoliners'. In July this year, the 77,000 tonnes newbuild was delivered in China and represents the first post-panamax vessel. She made her maiden voyage from East Asia to Europe.

Höegh Target with her distinctive square shaped superstructure that overhangs the bow is to maximise capacity. To give a sense of the sheer scale of these giant vessels, the maximum 8,500 cars if put in a row would form a line equivalent the length of a marathon. The total deck area is equal to the size of10 football fields (71 400 sqm).

The Horizon class newbuild offer 6.5 metres of free deck height. It is claimed that the 12 meter width ramp could easily crowd 75 elephants! on the stern ramp which takes 375 tonnes of cargo weight.

A sister, Höegh Trigger was named in September at Xiamen Shipbuilding Industries. Höegh Autoliners will take delivery of a further quartet with the final of the post-Panamax PCTC's to be completed in 2016.

The sisters are given DNV-GL’s class notification “CLEAN” for its cleaner design.

Below are further ‘Horizon’ class characteristics

Breadth Moulded 36.5m
Deadweight 20766
Mt Draught Max. 10.3m
Length O.A. 199.9m
Breadth 36.8m
Air Draft 46.5m

Door Openings Ramps
Type Width Height Type Length Capacity
Stern Opening 12 m 6.5 m Stern Ramp 45 m 375 tons
Side Opening 6.5 m 6.5 m Side Ramp 25 m 22 tons

Capacity
Cargo Capacity 8500 ceu
No. of Decks 14
No. of Hoistable Decks 5

Type Cars Pickups High Heavy Total
Max. Car/PU Space 71475 m³ 0 m³ 0 m³ 71475 m³
Max. HH Space 28145 m³ 0 m³ 17740 m³ 45885 m³

This morning’s departure of Höegh Target , involved the port pilot cutter Camac also in attendence as the pair headed into Dublin Bay from where the giant newbuild was bound for Antwerp, Belgium.

#DublinPort - More details have been requested by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as it assesses Dublin Port's plans to dump 10 million tonnes of "seabed material" in the Irish Sea off Howth.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Dublin Port wants to dredge its navigation channel as part of its bid to attract next-generation cruise liners that rivals Dun Laoghaire's own controversial cruise berth plans.

Both projects have prompted concern over the effects of such large-scale dredging and dumping operations in Dublin Bay, an area only designated this past summer as a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

And as The Irish Times reports, the EPA has received 700 submissions on Dublin Port's application alone, with local residents, divers, the fishing industry and conservationists united in their opposition.

Now the EPA has requested a full environmental impact assessment under the EU habitats directive, as well as a revised Natura impact statement, before it further consider's the port company's proposals.

The Irish Times has much more on the story HERE.

#Ferryport - Christmas brings increased demand for Irish Sea ferry services, as Stena Line estimate it will carry more than 135,000 passengers over the festive period, writes Jehan Ashmore.

On the premier Dublin-Holyhead route, this was the first festive season involving Stena Superfast X which was introduced earlier this year. The conventional tonnage 'Superfast' ferry operates alongside Stena Adventurer.

Competing directly on the Ireland-Wales route is Irish Ferries, which in order to cope with the busy time of year, transferred cruiseferry Oscar Wilde following completion of French route duties. The cruiseferry joined the routes three ferries. At the time of writing, Oscar Wilde is shifting berths in Dublin Port between the East Link bridge and back to the main ferryport, terminal 1 to resume sailings. 

In addition, the Irish capital was boosted with Isle of Man sailings, which took place for the second weekend, either side of Christmas Day. This saw ropax Ben-My-Chree make her rare yet customary Christmas appearance with Douglas-Dublin overnight round-trips. These crossings were completed in the early hours of this morning. 

Due to more ferries running in and out of Dublin's ferryport terminal one, which has two berths, it was at berth no 51(a) that has been shared over the festive season. The linkspan at berth 51(a) is where routine Irish Ferries fast-ferry HSC Jonathan Swift sailings operate plus those sailings carried out by Oscar Wilde.

As for Stena Line operations in Dublin, they are served using a single berth at neighbouring ferryport terminal two.

Jonathan Swift is the only Ireland-UK fast-ferry that operates year-round, however the Manx-Irish route operated by fast-ferry Manannan is to resume in the Spring. From then the fastferry also enters service on other routes, mainly the Douglas-Liverpool link.

#EpsilonsSecond - Epsilon's second Christmas takes place on the Irish Sea, as the chartered ro-pax has a year remaining before the three-year contract expires in 2016 to ICG, parent company of Irish Ferries, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Italian flagged ropax was introduced firstly on the premier central corridor Dublin-Holyhead route in December 2013. This was followed by the launch of a new continental direct Ireland-France service in January 2014. To read more about the ferry, click the captain interview here.

The Visentini yard built vessel operates the Dublin-Cherbourg route at weekends. It is on these routes that Epsilon has generated extra business for ICG's ferry divison.

Taking the roster of Epsilon over this festive and early New Year periods are in the charge of larger Oscar Wilde deployed to bring added boost to passenger capacity.

This leaves Epsilon to continue, albeit switched to freight-only sailings on the Ireland-Wales, though as to be expected freight-trends tend to dry-up at Christmas. 

Epsilon at time of writing is anchored in Dublin Bay, due to the above reasons and subject to available ferry berths in Dublin Port which are busier at this time of year.

In addition to Oscar Wilde on the Dublin-Holyhead route, Irish Ferries routine ships, flagship Ulysses and HSC (high speed craft) Jonathan Swift operate sailings. Peak capacity is scheduled this week when all the quartet of vessels are to transport passengers and freight.

In addition to capacity provided by Stena Line with a pair of ferries, this year's newcomer Stena Superfast X joined Stena Adventurer on their Dublin-Holyhead service.

#PortRailFreight - Iarnród Éireann and International Warehousing and Transport (IWT) reached a milestone as their partnership that transports intermodal containers and tanks by rail from Dublin Port to Ballina, Co. Mayo reached the 1500th train to operate during November.

According to MultiModal, six years ago the service commenced with just two trains per week from Dublin North Wall and the equivalent return services from Ballina.

Trains at Dublin Port were then being loaded on the Alexandra Road tramway until in May 2011 as previously reported on Afloat.ie the bespoke rail terminal at the port opened and services were transferred into it.

Over the intervening years the demand for the services steadily increased with up to 16 services now being operated each week. Use of rail has helped Ireland towards meeting its emissions targets with approximately 24,000 truck movements being saved from the roads and a saving of close to 5 million kgs in Co2 emissions being achieved.

Planned developments for these services include longer trains on the Dublin-Ballina route to improve the competitiveness of rail versus road. Co. Mayo is a major freight hub on the Iarnród Éireann network and in the latter part of 2015 sidings at Claremorris have been relayed and extended with one additional track being brought back into use to cope with the levels of freight now running to and from the county.

In addition to the IWT trains, pulpwood trains are operated regularly for Coillte, the Irish timber company and intermodal trains for DFDS Logistics. There are high hopes that a contract for further freight in the form of biomass will also be secured during the coming year.

#OppositionFuelPipe - Residents living in Dublin along the route of a planned €20m aviation-fuel pipeline to Dublin Airport have raised safety concerns, according to yesterday's Irish Examiner. 

Last month, Dublin City Council gave the green light to Fingleton White Ltd for the 11km section of the pipeline that passes through city council territory.

In June, Fingal County Council granted planning for the remaining 3km of the pipeline, which commences at Dublin Port.

The Fingal decision wasn’t appealed to An Bord Pleanála, but three appeals have been lodged by parties against the City Council decision, with the board ruling out a fourth appeal, lodged by Deputy Tommy Broughan, on a technicality.

Fingleton White say that the fuel demand at Dublin Airport results in 15,000 tanker journeys a year to Dublin Port and that a UK study has concluded “that the operation of the proposed pipeline has a significantly lower level of risk”.

The newspaper has more coverage here.

#Jobs - The Dublin Port Company invites applications from marine pilots for inclusion on a panel from which future permanent and temporary vacancies in the Dublin Pilotage Service will be filled.

The panel will be active for a period of two years. Applicants must be a holder of a valid STCW Level A-II/2 certificate of competency and must have extensive ship-handling experience.

The closing date for applications is Friday 4 December 2015. Details on how to apply are available on the Dublin Port website HERE.