Arklow Villa is among the short-sea trading vessels of Arklow Shipping that operate a contract for the Portuguese suppliers to import powdered cement from Lisbon to Workington in the UK, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The contract involves monthly deliveries of the cargo by ASL vessels and Afloat tracked the 5,170dwt Arklow Villa as the latest caller to the Irish Sea port in north-west England.

It was on Friday when Arklow Villa arrived to the Port of Workington, having spent the previous day at anchorage and also following a five-day passage from the Iberian port. These cargoes, take approximately three days to discharge in the port which involves using pneumatic pumping equipment.

Located on the Solway Firth in north-west England, Workington is a municipal port that handles up to 500,000 tonnes of cargo annually. Among the cargoes to the port are in the dry bulk, liquid bulk and break-bulk (forest products) trades, to energy, project cargo and container sectors.

The statutory harbour authority for the port is Cumbria County Council which is responsible for marine safety and conservancy at the port from where last night the Dutch flagged Arkow Villa departed to across the Irish Sea and arrive to Dublin Port this morning.

The cargoship is berthed at the Boliden Tara Mines (zinc-lead concentrates) loading facility within Alexandra Basin.

Arklow Villa has been in service for almost five years having been named in July 2018. The ceremony took place in Delfzijl, where the 86m long hulled cargoship was close to the Ems Estuary, shares the border with neighbouring Germany.

The shipyard that built Arklow Villa, Royal Bodewes at their inland yard in Hoogezand also in the Netherlands built the class to their in-house design of 5,170dwt Eco-Traders class. Otherwise, these ships are also known as the V-class with the leadship Arklow Vale built in 2015.

As with all the Eco-Traders, each of 2,999 gross tonnage, after launching and fitting out was completed, led to tugs that would tow the newbuilds from Hoogezand on the canal network to Delfzijl.

From here they entered the Ems estuary and proceeded to the nearby port of Emshaven where the V-class used as a base for sea trials.

All of the Eco-Traders are part of ASL's Dutch division, Arklow Shipping Nederland B.V. and where these ships have Rotterdam as the port of registry.