LAST UPDATE | 12 Dec 2024

THE FREIGHT AND shipping industry is calling for Holyhead Port to reopen for ferries as soon as possible afters days of closure due to damage sustained during Storm Darragh.

The port has been closed to marine traffic since the weekend when its infrastructure was damaged during the storm. 

It had previously indicated that crossings would be able to resume on Tuesday evening but it still remains closed as of this evening, forcing traders to find alternative routes at the busiest time of year and raising some concerns about timely deliveries for customers ahead of Christmas.

This evening, a statement by An Post said that no date has yet been verified for the port to reopen. A large portion of parcels have been rerouted from Holyhead to various other ports. An Post said that this has decreased the backlog at Holyhead from approximately 500,000 parcels to 150,000.

The Irish Exporters Association has called for “immediate and urgent action” to reopen the port. 

“The Dublin-Holyhead and return route, a vital link between Ireland and the UK, plays a crucial role in the Irish export and import industry, facilitating the smooth transit of goods and services,” the IEA said in a statement.

It added: “The prolonged closure has already caused considerable disruptions, affecting supply chains, businesses, and consumers alike, and any further delay could impact the availability of certain items in the run up to Christmas.”

IEA CEO Simon McKeever said that the closure has created challenges for both importers and exporters and that there is now backlog in both Dublin and Holyhead ports that will take days to clear.

“Because of the return nature of logistics movements between the two ports, the ongoing delay in reopening is causing serious concern across all sectors and I urge the Minister for Transport and the Irish Government to contact their Welsh counterparts to resolve this issue,” McKeever said.

“Holyhead Ferry Port is a critical infrastructure not only for the Irish export community, but also for Wales and the UK, and its prolonged closure has the capacity to causes significant supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas in both countries causing undue hardship to businesses and consumers.”

Impact on customers and businesses

Waiting for updates from Holyhead Port over the last several days amid uncertainty about when the port would re-open has caused problems for traders and logistics companies.

Simon McKeever of the IEA, speaking to The Journal, said that shipping companies are trying to divert ships to other ports but uncertainty about when Holyhead would reopen created challenges for making decisions, as well as managing the locations of trucks, trailers and drivers.

Additionally, many passengers who were due to travel on the cancelled ships may be looking to re-book, he said, raising questions about: “When people are travelling home for Christmas in both directions, who gets priority on that boat?”

“The latest information we have is that it will be a quarter past five tomorrow that the port will reopen,” Flynn said.

“If it is sorted by that time tomorrow, then the logistic companies are telling me that the backlog will be sorted by Christmas. If it goes into next week, then I think there’s a real problem.”

Re-routing ships

CEO of Freight Transport Association Ireland (FTA) Aidan Flynn said that the disruption has come at a difficult time of year in the run-up to Christmas and that it is “creating concern and anxiety”.

However, he added that the supply chain “is resilient”. 

“We’re beginning to see a moving of supply lines to Liverpool and Pembroke and Fishguard out of Rosslare and Dublin,” Flynn said, speaking to The Journal.

“That will help alleviate it but the main priority is to get Holyhead open again.”

Flynn said that given the structural damage caused to the port, it needs to first be made sure it is safe to re-open it.

An underwater inspection was delayed earlier in the week due to continued poor weather. 

At the same time, the sector needs “need clear understanding from Holyhead as to what the timelines are like”.

“We need a bit more clarity about what the timelines look like,” Flynn said, after changing estimations given during the week about when the port might re-open.

Currently, Stena Lines and Irish Ferries, which operate on the Dublin-Holyhead route, have cancelled all of their crossings today and early tomorrow but are both hoping to run ships later tomorrow.

However, there was a similar plan in place earlier this week which ultimately was scuppered by further delay.