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Displaying items by tag: Irish Sea ferry sector

#FreightFerry– Irish Sea freight-ferry operator Seatruck Ferries has welcomed the UK government's granting of the Heysham link-road to the M6 motorway, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The new road will improve both the local transport infrastructure and access to the Lancashire port, reduce congestion and cut transport costs.

Work is expected to commence this July and will near completion in late 2015.

Seatruck has been working with other local interests to push for a direct link road to junction 34 of the M6. This will enable easier port traffic access to the motorway network without having to transit through Lancaster.

The origins of Seatruck began in 1996 with the introduction of un-accompanied freight trailer service between Warrenpoint -Heysham, and to specifically meet transportation needs of the haulage industry.

Since then the company has progressed considerably with more routes: Dublin-Liverpool and Dublin-Heysham and a fleet of freight roll-on roll-off ferries.

As previously reported throughout last year on Afloat.ie, Seatruck received a quartet of custom built 'Heysham-Max' new build tonnage delivered from a Germany shipyard.

The final 18,000 tonnes 'P' class newbuild Seatruck Precision entered service last July on the Dublin-Liverpool route.

The company operate more than 50 weekly departures transiting the short-sea network of routes between Ireland and the UK.

Serving this network are freight-ferries with a capacity ranging from 65-150 unaccompanied trailer units.

Some of the 12 strong fleet, are currently deployed on the charter market to other users in the Irish Sea and operating in waters beyond this market sector.

 

Published in Ferry

As an island economy, a healthy maritime sector is key to our national competitiveness. Virtually all our imports and exports pass through Irish ports.

Ireland is dependent on ports and shipping services to transport goods and 90% of our trade is moved though Irish ports. Shipping and maritime transport services make a significant contribution to Ireland’s ocean economy, with the sector generating €2.3 billion in turnover and employing over 5,000 people in 2018.

Ireland’s maritime industry continues to grow and progress each year with Irish ports and shipping companies making significant investments. The ports sector in Ireland is currently undergoing a number of expansions and developments with Dublin Port’s Alexandra Basin development, the development of Ringaskiddy in Cork by Port of Cork and the development of Shannon Foynes Port. Along with these major investments, shipping companies are also investing heavily in new tonnage, with Irish Ferries, CLdN and Stena leading new build programmes.

These pages cover the following sectoral areas: shipowners, harbour authorities, shipbrokers, freight forwarders and contractors, cruise liner operators, port users, seamen, merchants, academic institutions, shipyards and repair facilities, naval architects, navy and defence personnel.

Our pages are covering some of the most notable arrivals around our coast and reporting too on port development and shipping news.

This section of the site deals with Port and Shipping News on our largest ports Dublin Port, Port of Cork, the Shannon Estuary, Galway Harbour and Belfast Lough.

A recent study carried out for the Irish Ports Association (IPA) totalled 75.7 billion during 2004 and their net economic impact was some 5.5 billion supporting around 57, 500 full time employees.

Liam Lacey, Director of the Marine Institute’s Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) said, “The Irish maritime industry can look to the future with confidence. It has shown itself to be resilient and agile in responding to challenges. Over the past decade, it has had to respond to the challenges of the financial crisis of 2008, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and recent challenges. Ireland’s maritime sector has continued to underpin our economy by maintaining vital shipping links for both trade and tourism.”