Christmas trade disruption continues as Holyhead port closed for longer

Storm-hit Holyhead port will remain closed until at least the 15 January, causing further disruption to trade between Great Britain and Ireland in the peak holiday season.

Holyhead on Anglesey in north Wales, one of Britain’s busiest ports, was due to reopen on 20 December after being badly damaged by Storm Darragh earlier in the month.

However, port owner Stena Line confirmed yesterday that two of its terminals would need to remain closed for longer due to large infrastructure damage still being addressed.

There were hopes the port – through which around 1,200 lorries and trailers make the journey from Wales to Dublin each day – would be open by Christmas, but passengers and businesses alike are now being advised to make alternative arrangements.

Ireland’s national postal service had already dropped plans to use Holyhead port for Christmas deliveries.

Exclusive data from supply chain analyst Project44 shows a slump in movements of goods between Holyhead and Dublin, with only two roll-on/roll-off vessel services – which are ships designed to carry wheeled cargo including lorries – recorded on 9 December, versus 20 on 2 December, a few days before the storm.

Movements of container vessels, general cargo vessels and passenger services have all been largely stopped for weeks now, the data showed.

The prolonged closures will continue to severely affect logistics and ferry operations between the UK and Ireland, experts have warned.

The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade’s international trade and customs senior specialist, Anna Doherty, 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.”

UK and EU to Ireland shipping routes have deployed larger vessels and additional sailings added to the schedule, but some transit times are taking longer as a result.

Companies should opt to “air freight time-sensitive cargo, or for larger cargo that is not able to be flown choose to route from Southampton into Dublin” to avoid further disruption, added Jenna Slagle, senior data analyst at Project44.

The most recent update from An Post on 16 December said all but 16,000 of the initially 500,000 affected parcels stuck in Holyhead port had been cleared.

“Through close collaboration with UK retailers and logistics companies, An Post has received almost all outstanding items impacted by the Storm Darragh/Holyhead outage.

“An Post is also securing air freight capacity to get parcels and mail that would traditionally have shipped via Holyhead moved out of Ireland to meet latest posting date promises.”

President of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Ger Hyland, told the BBC the ongoing closures will continue to be “detrimental” to its members and the Irish and Welsh economies.

“We’re now travelling hundreds of miles more, paying higher ferry costs because of a lack of available routes,” he said. “It’s meaning a huge commercial cost to the industry which won’t be seen until after Christmas.”

Dr Ioannis Koliousis, associate professor of logistics & supply chain management at Cranfield University, added: “Shutting down Holyhead Port has wide-reaching implications for trade, travel, and local communities.

“This incident shows that deeper thinking of the vulnerabilities in our infrastructure is needed, and the need for contingency planning to mitigate such impacts.”