Holyhead Port, a major hub for goods moving between Great Britain and the island of Ireland, is closed following damage sustained during last week’s Storm Darragh.
The port is set to remain shut until at least Thursday 19 December, the BBC reports, after the storm saw 94mph winds across parts of the UK. There had been hopes that the port could reopen today (13 December), but the port’s investigation into the extent of the damage is ongoing.
Storm damage
Traffic Wales has stated that “all sailings have been cancelled until further notice, pending vital structural inspections to ensure safety”, urging travellers not to come to the port.
“This closure is being managed through a coordinated effort between the Port Authority, Stena Line, Irish Ferries, Welsh Government, and Isle of Anglesey County Council to ensure public safety and minimise disruption.
“Further updates will be provided as they become available.”
Passenger services have also been affected. Stena Line, which operates ferries from Holyhead, said that it “has cancelled all ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead until Friday 20th December” and that it is “currently in the process of contacting all affected customers”.
The Chartered Institute perspective
Anna Doherty, international trade and customs senior specialist at the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, said:
“The Holyhead to Dublin route is used by many exporters to Ireland – for those that are UK-based, but also as a transit point for goods arriving from the EU using Great Britain as a land bridge. While the Holyhead port remains closed, goods will be routed through other border crossings, causing congestion in many places and resulting in delays and disruption.
“The Christmas period is busy for freight movements overall, but the indefinite closure of Holyhead port means a lot of carefully planned shipments need to be rescheduled, with some of them missing their scheduled deliveries.”
Industry views
The president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Ger Hyland, warned that the closure could have a “disastrous” effect on goods making it into and out of the UK in time for Christmas shopping:
"We're really going to struggle to get goods delivered to both the high street and for internet shopping.
"It is my reckoning that it's not going to be delivered in time."
Freight in both Holyhead and Dublin’s ports is now “lying idle”, Hyland said, adding that the difficulty in moving goods would be exacerbated by a shortage of HGV drivers.
Irish Exporters Association chief executive Simon McKeever said that Ireland, Wales and the wider UK would be affected.
"From an Irish point of view, it's impacting manufacturing business because they're waiting for critical inputs, the raw materials to turn it and send it back off the island."
Parcel rerouting
Irish postal service An Post Commerce’s managing director Garrett Bridgeman sounded a more optimistic tone on the shipment of parcels, according to the Irish Independent, telling RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland:
“It’s all moving now. We received over 350,000 parcels overnight which we are currently sorting. About 150,000 parcels remained in Holyhead and they are now being rerouted around the UK.
“But this is not a problem for us. We have all our staff, our automated facilities, our casual employees for this time of year. It won’t be a problem and we will deliver it all right up to Christmas Eve.
“All the trucks that were queued up at Holyhead have been moved to Fishguard, Liverpool and other ports, all the traffic is being rerouted making its way to Ireland. This is a huge issue for the haulage industry, but this traffic will arrive, it will be delivered.”
