Strategic mistake to continue banking on land bridge ?

Started by wildmind, January 13, 2021, 06:25:31 PM

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wildmind

Has there been a strategic and tactical mistake by many players in the industry , including Irish Ferries , in believing that trade would settle back to the landbridge?       Is the whole distribution and supply framework for Ireland not inevitably going to tilt toward direct Ireland -continent ferries ?

ccs

Quote from: wildmind on January 13, 2021, 06:25:31 PM
Has there been a strategic and tactical mistake by many players in the industry , including Irish Ferries , in believing that trade would settle back to the landbridge?       Is the whole distribution and supply framework for Ireland not inevitably going to tilt toward direct Ireland -continent ferries ?

Certainly look that way at the moment but in fairness we,re only 2 weeks into the new situation. It'll be 4/5 months before things settle down and the future becomes a bit clearer.

Steven

Quote from: wildmind on January 13, 2021, 06:25:31 PM
Has there been a strategic and tactical mistake by many players in the industry , including Irish Ferries , in believing that trade would settle back to the landbridge?       Is the whole distribution and supply framework for Ireland not inevitably going to tilt toward direct Ireland -continent ferries ?
Impossible to answer at this stage (though plenty of people seem to have acquired crystal balls in the past 18 months).  It could also be argued that it was a mistake by some to commit so much to direct given how capacity has now dropped.  There were also suggestions that more than one operator was rate dumping, which begs the question, how much money was actually being made by the operators?  A question many of us will never know the answer to I suspect! 

It?s all very well ?filling? a ship and getting the PR (and fully booked isn?t the same as leaving full given the amount of block booking that takes place for freight), but companies are in the business of making money at the end of the day!  Even now it isn?t clear how things will pan out in the coming months.
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

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