Stena Line is to add a second ship to its Dublin-Liverpool freight route, while the ferry company has also defended its decision to axe a Rosslare-Cherbourg service earlier this year.
Stena’s service between Dublin and Liverpool, which currently has two crossings a day, was introduced in February. The company has been monitoring it since then to gauge levels of demand.
“We started the route at the beginning of the year and have been seeing slowly if that was a good idea or not,” Stena Line chief executive Niclas Martensson said in an interview with The Irish Times in the company’s headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
“We have not announced this yet, but will do it now: we have decided to add a second ship on that route because it is something we truly believe in.
RM Block
“Because of that route, we have built a hub in Dublin. The more routes there are into one port, the more important that port will be for our freight-forwarding companies because they can then shuffle around their trailers in the most efficient way.”
Mr Martensson said the introduction of the route had been welcomed by Irish hauliers and exporters.
“Adding Dublin to Liverpool has been extremely welcome by our freight-forwarding customers, and the majority of those are Irish exporters,” he said.
“The Irish export market is extremely important to us because our customers’ business will become our business. So, first of all, we are an extremely early indicator if an economy goes good or bad, and I would say I see no clouds whatsoever for the Irish economy.
“The cargo is agriculture, a lot of pharma going out from Ireland, as well as spare parts for car manufacturers, aeroplanes in Northern Ireland as well. If we did not believe in the market, then we would not have started this new route.
“We need to invest in capacity much earlier than our freight-forwarding companies were asking for it, because we can’t be the bottleneck for them to grow.”
Stena Line announced the cancellation of its Rosslare-Cherbourg service in June. Mr Martensson said he was satisfied the decision was the correct one on the basis that post-Brexit customs clearance with Britain had turned out to be less complex than anticipated.
[ Brittany Ferries boosts Rosslare-Cherbourg sailingsOpens in new window ]
“We brought that route to prepare ourselves for the consequences of Brexit,” he said. “We wanted to add something more for our Irish customers. We thought the custom clearance was going to be extremely complex but it has actually turned out quite easy.
“First of all, there is extreme overcapacity in Rosslare. Road conditions are not superb in Rosslare either, although it is a fantastic port. However, our [freight] customers need the land bridge via the UK because that’s where they earn their money.
“So it turned out to be quite different than our expectations. I think there is capacity to serve all customers who want to go between Ireland and continental Europe so we are not leaving anyone behind.”
