Dublin Port plays down Brexit amid new boom

Dublin Port said it is taking on so much business that it will need to expand, setting aside fears that Brexit would severely disrupt its trade.

“We think the effect of Brexit on Dublin Port’s business will be much, much smaller than the impact of the recession post-2007, and we think we will double our 2010 volumes by 2032,” Eamonn O’Reilly, chief executive at Dublin Port, told the Irish Examiner.

“Our challenge now is how best to create additional port capacity in sufficient time to stay ahead of this growth,” he said.

The port said its “2012 to 2014 master plan” includes developing over the next five years 44 hectares of land which lies some 14km from the existing port.

In time, this will serve what it calls as its External Port Logistics Zone. It also plans to develop 50 hectares of land it owns on the Poolbeg Peninsula, which includes the West Poolbeg SDZ or strategic development zone which has permission for fast-track development.

Total trade volumes — which include both imports and exports — climbed to 26m tonnes in the first nine months this year, up 6.8% from the same period in 2015. The trade included 15.4m tonnes of imports and 10.6m tonnes of exports.

“At 6.8% growth in the first nine months of the year, we are now certain that 2016 will be the third record year in a row for trade at Dublin Port.

"We are seeing the re-emergence of exponential compounding growth which has characterised the business of Dublin Port for many decades,” Mr O’Reilly said.