The number of vessels arriving in Irish ports and the gross tonnage of all arriving vessels in 2021 increased by 7% in both cases compared with 2020, According to the new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Irish ports handled nearly 54 million tonnes of goods in 2021. This represents an increase of 5% compared with 2020. 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.
Great Britain & Northern Ireland accounted for 31% of the total tonnage of goods handled in Irish ports by region of trade in 2021, and other EU countries accounted for 42%.
1,020,000 passengers passed through Irish ports in 2021, an increase of 25% compared with 2020.
The results for quarter 4 in 2021 show that:
- The total number of vessels arriving during Q4 2021 in the main Irish ports decreased by 2% when compared with Q4 2020. When looking at the main Irish ports individually, in Bantry Bay, Drogheda, Dublin and Waterford the total number of vessels arriving during Q4 decreased between 2020 and 2021, while Rosslare, Shannon Foynes and Cork saw an increase in the total number of vessels arriving. Dublin port accounted for 61% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports.See table 1. Dublin port also accounted for 47% of the total tonnage of goods handled in Q4 2021.
The gross tonnage of all arriving vessels decreased by 2% when compared with Q4 2020, however, tonnage increased by 1% when compared with Q4 2019.