Dublin Port sees full year impact of Brexit on unitised volumes

83% of Dublin Port’s volumes are in the RoRo and LoLo modes and there were contrasting outcomes in these two modes:

• The number of RoRo units fell by -9.3% or 99,000 trailers
• This was significantly offset by an increase in LoLo units of +10.2% or 43,000 containers
• Overall unitised volumes (RoRo and LoLo combined) were down by -3.8% or 56,000 units

The full year impacts of Brexit on Dublin Port’s unitised volumes (RoRo and LoLo) are now clear:

• The overall decline in the number of containers and trailers was small (-3.8%).
• Fewer goods are now moving in trailers in the RoRo mode and more are moving in containers in the LoLo mode.  LoLo’s share of unitised volumes increased from 29% to 33%.
• Fewer RoRo trailers are moving driver-accompanied.  During 2021, their number declined by 90,000, contributing substantially to the overall decline in RoRo volumes of 99,000.
• The decline in RoRo volumes was concentrated on routes to the GB ports of Holyhead, Liverpool and Heysham where volumes declined by 187,000 (-21%) to 703,000.
• However, RoRo volumes on direct routes to Continental Europe increased by 88,000 to 259,000.
• As a result, where GB routes accounted for 64% of all of the 1.5 million unit loads (RoRo and LoLo combined) in 2020, they only accounted for 52% of the 1.4 million unit loads in 2021.