Construction BUSINESS

The redevelopment of Dublin Port is set to be a major construction project involving Ireland’s civil engineering contractors.

It has been announced the European Investment Bank has committed to providing a €100m loan over 20 years, reflecting the long-term nature of Dublin Port’s Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) Project.

This is the first time in 20 years for the EIB to finance port infrastructure development in Ireland and highlights the strategic significance of the project, which has a grant of planning permission from An Bord Pleanála.

The largest single infrastructure development project in the history of Dublin Port, the ABR Project is expected to take five years to complete, costing an estimated €230 million. An analysis by Indecon International Economic Consultants of the wider economic impacts arising from the ABR Project found that for every €1 million in economic costs, the project is associated with €2.80 million in economic benefits.

New figures for the port reveal total throughput (imports and exports) for the year to 30th September was 24 million gross tonnes, an increase of 5.8% on the 23 million tonnes handled in the first nine months last year. Showing further improvement in the domestic economy, imports rose 6.0% to 14.4 million gross tonnes on the same trading period, while exports strengthened by 5.5% to reach 9.9 million gross tonnes.

Eamonn O’Reilly, Chief Executive, Dublin Port Company, said:

“It is clear now that 2015 will be a record year and that yet more growth will come in future years as Ireland’s economy recovers. The strong growth on the import side and, within this, the 8.2% growth in petroleum imports from 2.7m to 2.9m tonnes and the 12,000 additional cars imported in the first nine months all come from the welcomed recovery in the domestic economy.”