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Displaying items by tag: Stormont Executive

27th January 2011

Belfast Harbour Trade Improves

Trade through Belfast Harbour is on the rise after a three-year drop, the The Corkman reports.
Cargo through the port rose by 5% in the last year to 16.5 million tonnes, following a 10% fall since 2007 due to the global economic crisis.
While passenger numbers have fallen slightly, 35 cruise ships carring 62,000 visitors docked in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, bulk cargo trade was up by 12%, and grain and animal feed trade broke the 2 million tonnes.
Salt shipments were also up my more than 200% due to the severe winter freeze.
The numbers will be good news to the Stormont Executive, which is expected to introduced a new levy on harbour trade to offset spending cuts.

Trade through Belfast Harbour is on the rise after a three-year drop, The Corkman reports.

Cargo through the port rose by 5% in the last year to 16.5 million tonnes, following a 10% fall since 2007 resulting from the global economic crisis.

While passenger numbers have fallen slightly, 35 cruise ships carring 62,000 visitors docked in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, bulk cargo trade was up by 12%, and grain and animal feed trade broke 2 million tonnes.

Salt shipments were also up my more than 200% due to the severe winter freeze.

The numbers will be good news to the Stormont Executive, which is expected to introduced a new levy on harbour trade to offset spending cuts.

Published in Belfast Lough

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.