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Total tonnes of goods handled by Irish ports in Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023 decreased by 4% when compared with Q3 2022.
Compared with Q2 2023, the total tonnes of goods handled by Irish ports fell by 3%.
During Q3 2023, 3,130 vessels arrived in the seven main Irish ports compared with 3,202 in Q3 2022.
Dublin Port accounted for 61% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports.
Goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 3.8 million tonnes in Q3 2023.
Goods received amounted to nearly 8 million tonnes in Q3 2023.
| Tonnage of goods handled by main Irish ports, Quarter 3 2021-2023 | ||||
| '000 tonnes | ||||
| Category of goods | Q3 2021 | Q3 2022 | Q3 2023 | % Change Q3 2022-2023 |
| Liquid bulk | 2,741 | 2,725 | 2,613 | -4% |
| Dry bulk | 3,554 | 3,154 | 3,162 | 0% |
| Lift-on/lift-off | 2,255 | 2,162 | 1,761 | -19% |
| Roll-on/roll-off | 3,961 | 4,016 | 3,976 | -1% |
| Break bulk & other goods | 298 | 262 | 279 | 6% |
| Total | 12,808 | 12,319 | 11,790 | -4% |
Figure 1 shows the tonnage of goods handled by Irish ports. There were quarterly percentage decreases in Lift On/Lift Off traffic (-19%), Liquid Bulk (-4%), and Roll-On/Roll-Off (-1%).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 January 2024 published Statistics of Port Traffic results for Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023.
Commenting on the annual figures, Dr Nele van der Wielen, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “Irish ports handled 11.8 million tonnes of goods in July, August, September (Q3) 2023. This is a decrease of 4% compared with Q3 2022.
Goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 3.8 million tonnes in Q3 2023, while nearly 8 million tonnes of goods were received (See Table 2).
Vessel Analysis
The total number of vessels that arrived in the seven main Irish ports during Q3 2023 ports fell by 2% when compared with Q3 2022 (See Table 1).
Dublin Port accounted for 61% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports and for 51% of the total tonnage of goods handled in Q3 2023.
Great Britain & Northern Ireland accounted for 38% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports by region of trade in Q3 2023. EU countries made up 40% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports (See Table 5).”