Irish ports handle almost 13m tonnes in first three months of 2025

It comes as a new port, Greenore in Co Louth, is included as a main statistical port for the first time by the CSO

Shipping containers on the dockside at the Port of Dublin. Photographer: Patrick Bolger/Bloomberg

The total tonnage of goods handled by the eight main Irish ports was 12.9m tonnes in the first three months of 2025.

It comes as a new port, Greenore in Co Louth, is included as a main statistical port for the first time. 

It marks the first time the number of statistical ports in Ireland has increased since the CSO series began in early 2017.

"It joins Bantry Bay, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Rosslare, Shannon Foynes, and Waterford, and increases the total number of main statistical ports in Ireland from seven to eight," said CSO statistician Damien Lenihan. 

However, Mr Lenihan also noted that its inclusion will affect comparability as the data in for the first three months of 2025  is now based on eight ports whereas previous releases were based on seven.

The CSO reported a 7% rise in the total tonnes of goods handled by Irish ports between January and March 2025.

Goods forrwarded from Irish ports amounted to 4m tonnes in in the first three months of this year, up by 5% when compared with the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, goods received by Irish ports amounted to 9m tonnes at the start of 2025, which was 8% higher than the same period in the previous year.

Between January and March, some 2,557 vessels arrived in the main Irish ports compared with 2,488 in the same three months in 2024. Dublin Port accounted for 58% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports in the three months.

Main statistical ports are categorised as those ports that have exceeded handling 1 million tonnes of goods or 200,000 passengers each year for a consecutive three-year period.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland accounted for 29% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports by region of trade in the first three months of this year, while EU countries accounted for 48% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports.