Port suffers second blow

AFTER a court case which is reputed to have cost Shannon Foynes Port Company several million euro to settle, the body has suffered another financial blow with the loss of a shipping customer at Foynes.

Xpress Container Line has cancelled its weekly container service between Foynes and Rotterdam.

The service was initiated by former chief executive Brian Byrne who recently settled a High Court action after he was suspended by the company.

Mr Byrne received substantial compensation and his legal costs were awarded as part of the huge settlement.

Now the company is facing a new financial headache with the loss of a big customer.

Shannon Foynes Port Company commercial manager Martin Morrissey said there were a number of factors involved in the decision to withdraw the service.

“After a lot of effort by a lot of people there wasn’t upward growth. The market is not growing and the trend is down. The key customers are the deep sea shipping lines who operate out of Tokyo, Copenhagen and such places.”

He said bad weather had also caused problems for the Foynes/Rotterdam service as high seas added to costs.

Mr Morrissey said very competitive rates were offered to customers, but it was not taken up in the region to the extent that was expected.

He said: “It would be very nice to be providing a containerisation service. But if the region doesn’t want it, there is nothing we can do.”

The container business lost to Foynes is now likely to transfer to Cork and Dublin ports.

As the business was run by a private company there will be no job losses at Shannon Foynes Port Company.