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Displaying items by tag: CSO figures

Irish Ports handled 11.8 million tonnes of goods in Q3 of 2023, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures - for the period of July, August and September - a 4% decrease compared with same quarter 2022.

As RTE News reports, the amount of goods forwarded from Irish Ports was 3.8 million tonnes in Q3 last year, while almost 8m tonnes of goods were received.

The CSO figures reveal, when compared with Q2 also of 2023, the total amount of tonnes in goods fell by 3% through the nation’s ports.

During Q3, 2023 the total number of merchant ships (3,130) that arrived to Ireland’s main ports: Bantry, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Rosslare, Shannon and Waterford - fell by 2% (3,202) when compared with the third quarter of 2022.

In the capital, the state owned Dublin Port Company, accounted for 61% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports and 51% accounted in the total tonnage of goods handled over the three-months under review.

The CSO’s Statistics Of Port Traffic results (click here) has shown that Great Britain & Northern Ireland accounted for 38% of the total tonnage of goods handled through main ports by region of trade in Q3, while EU countries made up 40% of total tonnage of goods handled throughout the bloc's main ports.

Published in Irish Ports

Irish Ports according to the Central Statistics Office figures released today show that they handled a total of 11.9 million tonnes of goods in the first quarter of the year.

As RTE News reports, this level of goods represented a decrease of 6% when compared with the same time last year.

The CSO’s Statistics of Port Traffic Quarter 1 2023 said that goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to nearly 4 million tonnes within the first three months of the year.

In this Q1 period, the CSO added that a total of 7.9 million tonnes of goods were received.

As for the total number of commercial vessels that called in Irish ports during the first quarter of 2023, of the seven main ports – Drogheda and Dublin, Rosslare (Leinster) and Bantry, Cork, Shannon and Waterford (Munster) had decreased by 5% compared with Q1 of 2022.

Also amongst the key figures revealed was that Dublin Port had accounted for 63% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports. In addition the capital port is where 51% of the total tonnage of goods were handled in January, February and March of this year.

Across the border and the Irish Sea is where Great Britain & Northern Ireland had accounted for 37% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports by region of trade.

On mainland continental Europe, countries within the EU had resulted for 42% of the total tonnage of goods handled in seven major ports, the CSO added.

Published in Irish Ports

Figures released from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that Irish ports in 2022 handled a total of 53.2 million tonnes of goods, this represented a dip of 1% when compared to the previous year.

According to the CSO's Statistics of Port Traffic (Q4 and Year 2022), goods forwarded from Irish ports had amounted to 16.9 million tonnes in 2022.  As for goods received, this amounted to a  total of 36.3 million tonnes entering the nation.

Irish ports had forwarded goods totalling 17.4 million tonnes in 2021 and in the same year 36.6 million tonnes of goods were received.

For figures regarding Great Britain & Northern Ireland they accounted for 35% of the total tonnage of goods handled based from main ports by region of trade in 2022.

In countries of the European Union, the bloc had accounted for 40% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports.

There was a decrease in the number of vessels that called to Irish ports in 2022 with 12,447 vessels, down 266 vessels from a total of 12,713 vessels that arrived last year.

RTE News has more on the CSO figures.

As for tonnage of goods handled, Afloat adds, they decreased in three of five traffic categories in 2022, where there was a percentage increase in Roll-on/roll-off traffic (Ro-Ro) of 5% and Liquid bulk that was at 3%.

For more of the latest CSO figures including passenger based they can be studied here.

Published in Irish Ports

Exports of Irish goods have been more in the first 10 months of 2022 when compared to the entirety of last year according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures released today.

The CSO's latest unadjusted figures show goods exports in October had reached a total value of €17.6 billion. This figure was €2.6 billion or 18% higher than the level seen in October 2021.

As The Irish Times reports, of the goods exported, the value is now running 29% higher for the first 10 months of this year when compared to the previous year.

“Exports for January to October 2022 were more than €176 billion. This value already exceeds the total exports for the year 2021 of €165 billion,” said Ciarán Counihan, a statistician in the CSO’s international trade in goods division.

For further statistics of trading to the UK, the EU and the USA, click the newspaper here

Published in Ports & Shipping

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released new figures that show Irish ports handled a total of 13.1 million tonnes of goods in the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 1% compared with the same time last year.

Of the seven main Irish ports - Dublin Port, Bantry, Cork, Drogheda, Rosslare, Shannon and Waterford - 3,085 vessels in total arrived during the three months from April to June.

This marked an increase of 2% on the same time last year.

Also according to the CSO was that Dublin port had accounted for 63% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports in the three month period.

For more RTE News reports on statistics from trade between Northern Ireland and Britain. 

Published in Irish Ports

New Central Statistics Office figures show that the number of vessels arriving in Irish ports last year rose by 7% on 2020 levels.

The gross tonnage of all arriving vessels in 2021 also increased by 7%, the CSO said.

Irish ports handled nearly 54 million tonnes of goods in 2021, an increase of 5% compared with 2020.

The CSO said that goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 17.4 million tonnes in 2021, while a total of 36.5 million tonnes of goods were received.

Today's CSO figures also show that over one million passengers passed through Irish ports last year, a jump of 25% compared with 2020.

More RTE News has to report on the port statistics. 

Published in Irish Ports

Unadjusted exports of goods from Ireland, exceeded €20 billion in a month for the first time in March, driven mainly by growth in the exports of medical and pharmaceutical products, as well as organic chemicals, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

The data also shows that imports exceeded €11 billion for the first time on record. Imports from Britain grew by 39 per cent to €1.9 billion, driven mainly by increases in the imports of mineral fuels and chemicals.

However, CSO statistician Ciarán Counihan pointed out that the large growth rate in imports from Britain is partly explained by the relatively low level of imports in March 2021 when customs documentation was required for trade.

Seasonally adjusted goods exports increased by €2 billion (+12 per cent) to €18.4 billion in March compared with February.

Seasonally adjusted goods imports decreased by €241 million (-2 per cent) to €9.7 billion, leading to an increase of €2.4 billion (+34 per cent) in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus to €8.7 billion in March compared with the previous month.

The Irish Times has more from the CSO figures.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Irish goods exports in value have soared to a record €165 billion last year despite the disruption to global trade caused by the pandemic.

The full-year (Central Statistics Office) figures for 2021 show trade with the UK has been impacted by Brexit, however.

While Irish exports to Britain were up by €2 billion or 17 per cent in the 12 months to the end of December, imports of goods from Britain were down by nearly €2.4 billion or 13 per cent.

Since the UK’s departure from the EU on January 1st, 2021 firms have faced increased customs requirements.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) said last year that post-Brexit rules and “excessive paperwork” has forced it to cut about 800 lines from its stores in the Republic.

But the fall-off in imports has coincided with a significant uptick in cross-Border trade on the island of Ireland.

The Irish Times has more on the CSO figures including an exports/imports graph .  

Published in Ports & Shipping

According to the Central Statistics Office, the amount of goods handled by Irish Ports in the second quarter of this year increased above pre-pandemic levels.

Figures also from the CSO show nearly 13m tonnes of goods were handled between April and June. This is an increase of 17.4% compared with the same period last year and an increase of 5.1% compared with the second quarter of 2019.

By tonnage, Dublin Port handled the largest amount of cargo of 6.3m tonnes followed by Shannon Foynes with 2.5m tonnes and Cork with 2.4m tonnes.

The figure for Cork is the largest over the past five years.

The Irish Examiner has more CSO statistics 

Published in Irish Ports

Exports of goods rose by €1.1bn to Britain, and imports fell by €2.5bn, in the first six months this year, as companies rushed to adjust their supply chains across the Irish Sea following December's hard Brexit deal.

At over €6.7bn, the total value of goods exports to Britain was up by €1.1bn in the first half of the year from the same period in 2020, while imports from Britain fell sharply, by €2.5bn to €5.3bn.

The CSO figures may also point to changes in supply chains within the island of Ireland and potentially to a strengthening of the all-Ireland economy.

According to the CSO, exports to the North form the Republic rose to over €1.5bn in the first six months from €1.1bn a year earlier, while imports also rose to €1.7bn in the same period from around €1bn a year earlier.

In June, exports to Britain rose by €575m to €1.4bn from June 2020, helped by increases in chemicals and machinery, while imports in the month from Britain fell by €213m to €1bn.

The CSO figures also point to the overall disruption caused by the Covid-19 crisis, as Irish exports to the EU fell, and imports rose by a significant amount over the same period.

More from the Irish Examiner here.

Published in Irish Ports
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Irish Fishing industry 

The Irish Commercial Fishing Industry employs around 11,000 people in fishing, processing and ancillary services such as sales and marketing. The industry is worth about €1.22 billion annually to the Irish economy. Irish fisheries products are exported all over the world as far as Africa, Japan and China.

FAQs

Over 16,000 people are employed directly or indirectly around the coast, working on over 2,000 registered fishing vessels, in over 160 seafood processing businesses and in 278 aquaculture production units, according to the State's sea fisheries development body Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).

All activities that are concerned with growing, catching, processing or transporting fish are part of the commercial fishing industry, the development of which is overseen by BIM. Recreational fishing, as in angling at sea or inland, is the responsibility of Inland Fisheries Ireland.

The Irish fishing industry is valued at 1.22 billion euro in gross domestic product (GDP), according to 2019 figures issued by BIM. Only 179 of Ireland's 2,000 vessels are over 18 metres in length. Where does Irish commercially caught fish come from? Irish fish and shellfish is caught or cultivated within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but Irish fishing grounds are part of the common EU "blue" pond. Commercial fishing is regulated under the terms of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), initiated in 1983 and with ten-yearly reviews.

The total value of seafood landed into Irish ports was 424 million euro in 2019, according to BIM. High value landings identified in 2019 were haddock, hake, monkfish and megrim. Irish vessels also land into foreign ports, while non-Irish vessels land into Irish ports, principally Castletownbere, Co Cork, and Killybegs, Co Donegal.

There are a number of different methods for catching fish, with technological advances meaning skippers have detailed real time information at their disposal. Fisheries are classified as inshore, midwater, pelagic or deep water. Inshore targets species close to shore and in depths of up to 200 metres, and may include trawling and gillnetting and long-lining. Trawling is regarded as "active", while "passive" or less environmentally harmful fishing methods include use of gill nets, long lines, traps and pots. Pelagic fisheries focus on species which swim close to the surface and up to depths of 200 metres, including migratory mackerel, and tuna, and methods for catching include pair trawling, purse seining, trolling and longlining. Midwater fisheries target species at depths of around 200 metres, using trawling, longlining and jigging. Deepwater fisheries mainly use trawling for species which are found at depths of over 600 metres.

There are several segments for different catching methods in the registered Irish fleet – the largest segment being polyvalent or multi-purpose vessels using several types of gear which may be active and passive. The polyvalent segment ranges from small inshore vessels engaged in netting and potting to medium and larger vessels targeting whitefish, pelagic (herring, mackerel, horse mackerel and blue whiting) species and bivalve molluscs. The refrigerated seawater (RSW) pelagic segment is engaged mainly in fishing for herring, mackerel, horse mackerel and blue whiting only. The beam trawling segment focuses on flatfish such as sole and plaice. The aquaculture segment is exclusively for managing, developing and servicing fish farming areas and can collect spat from wild mussel stocks.

The top 20 species landed by value in 2019 were mackerel (78 million euro); Dublin Bay prawn (59 million euro); horse mackerel (17 million euro); monkfish (17 million euro); brown crab (16 million euro); hake (11 million euro); blue whiting (10 million euro); megrim (10 million euro); haddock (9 million euro); tuna (7 million euro); scallop (6 million euro); whelk (5 million euro); whiting (4 million euro); sprat (3 million euro); herring (3 million euro); lobster (2 million euro); turbot (2 million euro); cod (2 million euro); boarfish (2 million euro).

Ireland has approximately 220 million acres of marine territory, rich in marine biodiversity. A marine biodiversity scheme under Ireland's operational programme, which is co-funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Government, aims to reduce the impact of fisheries and aquaculture on the marine environment, including avoidance and reduction of unwanted catch.

EU fisheries ministers hold an annual pre-Christmas council in Brussels to decide on total allowable catches and quotas for the following year. This is based on advice from scientific bodies such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. In Ireland's case, the State's Marine Institute publishes an annual "stock book" which provides the most up to date stock status and scientific advice on over 60 fish stocks exploited by the Irish fleet. Total allowable catches are supplemented by various technical measures to control effort, such as the size of net mesh for various species.

The west Cork harbour of Castletownbere is Ireland's biggest whitefish port. Killybegs, Co Donegal is the most important port for pelagic (herring, mackerel, blue whiting) landings. Fish are also landed into Dingle, Co Kerry, Rossaveal, Co Galway, Howth, Co Dublin and Dunmore East, Co Waterford, Union Hall, Co Cork, Greencastle, Co Donegal, and Clogherhead, Co Louth. The busiest Northern Irish ports are Portavogie, Ardglass and Kilkeel, Co Down.

Yes, EU quotas are allocated to other fleets within the Irish EEZ, and Ireland has long been a transhipment point for fish caught by the Spanish whitefish fleet in particular. Dingle, Co Kerry has seen an increase in foreign landings, as has Castletownbere. The west Cork port recorded foreign landings of 36 million euro or 48 per cent in 2019, and has long been nicknamed the "peseta" port, due to the presence of Spanish-owned transhipment plant, Eiranova, on Dinish island.

Most fish and shellfish caught or cultivated in Irish waters is for the export market, and this was hit hard from the early stages of this year's Covid-19 pandemic. The EU, Asia and Britain are the main export markets, while the middle Eastern market is also developing and the African market has seen a fall in value and volume, according to figures for 2019 issued by BIM.

Fish was once a penitential food, eaten for religious reasons every Friday. BIM has worked hard over several decades to develop its appeal. Ireland is not like Spain – our land is too good to transform us into a nation of fish eaters, but the obvious health benefits are seeing a growth in demand. Seafood retail sales rose by one per cent in 2019 to 300 million euro. Salmon and cod remain the most popular species, while BIM reports an increase in sales of haddock, trout and the pangasius or freshwater catfish which is cultivated primarily in Vietnam and Cambodia and imported by supermarkets here.

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), initiated in 1983, pooled marine resources – with Ireland having some of the richest grounds and one of the largest sea areas at the time, but only receiving four per cent of allocated catch by a quota system. A system known as the "Hague Preferences" did recognise the need to safeguard the particular needs of regions where local populations are especially dependent on fisheries and related activities. The State's Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, based in Clonakilty, Co Cork, works with the Naval Service on administering the EU CFP. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and Department of Transport regulate licensing and training requirements, while the Marine Survey Office is responsible for the implementation of all national and international legislation in relation to safety of shipping and the prevention of pollution.

Yes, a range of certificates of competency are required for skippers and crew. Training is the remit of BIM, which runs two national fisheries colleges at Greencastle, Co Donegal and Castletownbere, Co Cork. There have been calls for the colleges to be incorporated into the third-level structure of education, with qualifications recognised as such.

Safety is always an issue, in spite of technological improvements, as fishing is a hazardous occupation and climate change is having its impact on the severity of storms at sea. Fishing skippers and crews are required to hold a number of certificates of competency, including safety and navigation, and wearing of personal flotation devices is a legal requirement. Accidents come under the remit of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, and the Health and Safety Authority. The MCIB does not find fault or blame, but will make recommendations to the Minister for Transport to avoid a recurrence of incidents.

Fish are part of a marine ecosystem and an integral part of the marine food web. Changing climate is having a negative impact on the health of the oceans, and there have been more frequent reports of warmer water species being caught further and further north in Irish waters.

Brexit, Covid 19, EU policies and safety – Britain is a key market for Irish seafood, and 38 per cent of the Irish catch is taken from the waters around its coast. Ireland's top two species – mackerel and prawns - are 60 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively, dependent on British waters. Also, there are serious fears within the Irish industry about the impact of EU vessels, should they be expelled from British waters, opting to focus even more efforts on Ireland's rich marine resource. Covid-19 has forced closure of international seafood markets, with high value fish sold to restaurants taking a large hit. A temporary tie-up support scheme for whitefish vessels introduced for the summer of 2020 was condemned by industry organisations as "designed to fail".

Sources: Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Marine Institute, Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Department of Transport © Afloat 2020