Luxembourg-headquartered CLdN is doing well with its Rotterdam and Dublin route. For the third time this year, the company has added sailings to the route. The carrier now offers a weekly schedule of three RoRo services and three LoLo crossings.
CLdN has announced another enhancement to its Irish Sea services by allocating an additional load-on / load-off (LoLo) sailing to its Rotterdam – Dublin route.
The new service means that CLdN customers will now have three direct LoLo as well as three direct RoRo departures per week from both Rotterdam and Dublin. Since earlier this year, when CLdN signed an agreement with Dublin Port, permitting the use of terminal facilities, the carrier has been working to increase its operations.
Twenty-two weekly sailings
It was only in March this year that CLdN augmented the Rotterdam – Dublin service. The short sea route is managed by RoRo ferries and two chartered 962 TEU capacity LoLo vessels. The operational base is at the recently acquired Distriport terminal in Rotterdam, from where Irish Sea services to both Dublin and Cork are handled.
“CLdN is the only operator providing this level of service between mainland Europe and Ireland,” said a company statement.
“The additional LoLo service will be deployed from 30th August at CLdN’s Distriport terminal in Rotterdam. This will bring to 22 the number of weekly sailings between Ireland and CLdN’s main continental hubs of Rotterdam and Zeebrugge.”
Short sea benefits from fall of UK landbridge
Growth on European routes to Ireland has been positively impacted by the UK exit from the EU. Until the so-called Brexit, in early 2020, a significant proportion of trade between Ireland and Europe was routed via the east of England and ports on the coast of Wales.
Since Brexit however, the administrative overhead in using Great Britain as a landbridge has proved a deterrent for trade, particularly truck-born cargo.
Conversely, British and Irish trade has significantly recovered. It continues to grow, and recent political developments which ease cargo movements between the UK and Ireland have also helped. CLdN has taken that into account. Early in August, the company announced a significant restoration and redevelopment project at Liverpool, where the historic Brocklebank terminal will be revitalised to serve that market.