Irish Continental Group - Irish Ferries Parent Company Half Year results

Freight
• RoRo volumes up 20% YTD, with Summer volumes up 25%
Very positive market reaction to additional ship on Dublin/Holyhead and Dublin/Cherbourg

Tourism
• Passenger numbers up 4% YTD, with Summer volumes up 9%
• Car numbers +8% YTD, with Summer volumes up 12%

Is this all routes though Pete?  If I get broken down figures for IF I will post them of course.  If Epsilon has resulted in 20% overall increase rather than just to Holyhead then obviously that's a bit more significant.

Stena Europe  back up and running this evening ,there's life in the old dog yet, and  as dieppe seaways looks set for Dublin ,then the stena Europe  I would say ,will remain in roslare for another while yet, I think nordica pax capacity is too small for summer season in roslare ,and she would be more useful elsewhere. It will be a pity to see Dun laoghaire port become redundant ,with all her ferry history, epically that she has fantastic facilities for passangers  with train station  gangways ,parking,etc,,at least when stena pulled out of larne ,p+o remained. I don't think it's the loss of the HSS that's the main thing ,it's the loss of the ferry connection  that will be the biggest disappointment for the town.

Think you hit the jail on the head there.  However last time I was in Larne I would have described the facilities as adequate at best.  Not much has changed up there over the years apart from some of the land now being a retail park.  When the HSS does leave it will be the end of an era, much in the same way as it was when Stena left Stranraer but more significant.  However it may open up other opportunities for both the port and the town.

Wait, nothing has been confirmed yet about the Explorer so lets wait and see, only the people at Stena HQ know.......... although I am not sure even they know what to do 

The IF Figures are overall.

The additional sailings have lead to this overall increase.

The IF Figures are overall.

The additional sailings have lead to this overall increase.

Came across the report today

In the first half of 2014 passengers carried were up 0.8% at 683,800 while total cars carried were 150,900, up 5.9% on the same period in the previous year. In RoRo freight, Irish Ferries’ volumes were up 18.5% to 118,100 units, when compared with the first half of 2013 reflecting the additional capacity of the ‘Epsilon’ which represented 92% of the increase, and also a growing freight market.

http://www.icg.ie/documents/half-year-results-2014.pdf

Now for some maths (please feel free to correct if I slip up!) 92% of 18.5% would be 17.02% meaning Epsilon has led to a 17.02% increase in RoRo freight.  By my calculations this means that Epsilon carried 17.02% of 118,100 units meaning Epsilon carried 20100(.62) freight units in the first half of the year on the 2 routes she serves.  That sounds like a lot but bearing in mind Stena carried 14450 trailers on Nordica and Adventurer in June alone it would be interesting to see the full breakdown of how many trailers and when where carried.  Stena's volumes are slightly down (-3%) for June.

The Night sailings out of Dublin are full and the sailings to and from Cherbourg.

So that's Explorer's summer season over and done with.  A short finale at Christmas is looking hopeful, but still not certain from what I hear.  Good to see that so many got to enjoy her again anyways just in case she doesn't make it back at Christmas!

I have been told Explorers carryings are significantly DOWN this year on last.  I believe she operated in 500 passenger mode for her last sailing.


Still no more info on Superfast X apart from a short quote in the Swedish press from Stena saying her route had yet to be decided.  I doubt very much that this is true given how specialist a type of ship she is and her considerable running costs - these aren't ships that can be justifiably put just anywhere.  For a start she is over 200m long (which considerably limits options for dry docking as well as just berthing) and wasn't built for economy.  Still much cheaper to run than an HSS at half power though!

With regards to the HSS sailing figures, I could see for myself that it was REALLY quiet on board, especially when sailing from Holyhead.
My review of last weeks crossing can be found on the Stena Fleet Movements on page 101.

Was Giving the Central corridor a good look from stena's point of view, if we look at It without the HSS the departures would be as follows:
Ex Dublin: 0215, 0820, 1510, 2030
Ex Holyhead: 0215, 0855, 1350, 2030
there are quite so gaps, and couple with the fact Stena Nordica is sailing near full and superfast X does not have any extra lane meter capacity would thinking outside the box be a possibility like with the Stena Caladonia before Stena Navigator was brought in. If i was trying to increase capacity without increasing cost substantially i would look at   look at getting the ships to do 2 and a half gaps aday on the route to spread the freight and passengers out over a better time spectrum and close up some of the gaps in the day timetable, I would suggest the following:
Ex Dublin: 0215, 0715, 1145, 1615, 2045
Ex Holyhead: 0215, 0715, 1145, 1645, 2045
I would also suggest each ship missing one sailing per week such as 0215 on a sunday morning to ensure the Stena Adventurer is on the busiest freight loop. Just a thought worth considering it.
Interest would this type of time suit tourist and freight??

Good idea, but remember the Epsilon does to Cherbourg at weekends, so that might affect things.

No sorry it would not effect Stena at all. Thats a situation for Irish Ferries. Stena could captive on their extra capacity at weekends verses Irish Ferries with this set up!!

Remember, Freight tends to travel at night whereas passengers tend to travel during the day. Its the night sailings where both operators carry the most freight from what I can gather - hence Explorer's sailing times which as I have said before coincide with Nordica's busiest passenger sailings.  There is an assumption being made that every sailing Nordica makes her vehicle decks are at bursting point.  Unfortunately, whereas Adventurer can handle large numbers of passengers during the day, Nordica can not which is where the logic is of introducing a vessel with similar freight capacity but (we assume) much greater passenger capacity.

As for the weekends, freight tends to be shipped during the week so it makes sense for IF to redeploy the more freight orientated vessel at the weekend in the same way that Stena layup Stena Hibernia over the weekend.  IF can always soak up passenger demand with the Swift.

No sorry it would not effect Stena at all. Thats a situation for Irish Ferries. Stena could captive on their extra capacity at weekends verses Irish Ferries with this set up!!

Sorry yes you are absolutely right, I miss read what you put as I thought you had put both the Irish Ferries and Stena Line up, which unsurprisingly are very similar.

Both of you are right about the freight situation, as I saw that for myself in Holyhead last week.

I fully accept that the majority of freight would move at night but what I was thinking was the extra choice offered would free up space as some shippers would choice possibly cheaper crossings, it would also free up drop trailer space on the busier sailings as these can now be spread over 5 sailings instead of 4 and the 0715 sailing could soak up overflow from the 0215 sailings but also be relatively attractive to passenger traffic especially as it arrives off peak for onward journeys. the 0715 from Dublin would arrive at 1030 allowing the same arrival as the JSwift. So interested from a passenger point of view also.
My aim is to see the following from both ports:
0215 Mainly freight with some passenger traffic
0715 A mix of freight and passengers
1145 Mainly passenger with some freight
1615 Mainly passenger and some freight
2030 mainly freight with some passenger traffic 

With regards the explorers  passanger   numbers being down on last year,I don't think it is because people don't want to use either Dun laoghaire or the explorer , it all goes down to ticket price.most of the passangers using the ferries these days are bringing their car.   All summer long it has been up to 100 euros more to travel on a return journey of 2 adults + 2kids +car on the explorer (that's a lot of extra cash to have to spend) . I guarantee  that if it was the same price or even a little cheaper to travel on the explorer ,then she would have been a very busy ship all summer,  . I think stena have known they are pulling out of Dun laoghaire , and have been slowly running down the route,(with very high prices and only one sailing daily) I also think the Dun laoghaire harbour board dont really seem too bothered with stena pulling out, they will probably get a pay off from stena for next year as stena  I think still have a year of contract . Also all they(the harbour board) are talking about now is cruise liners , (it must be quite profitable to be in) they are planning to start work on a new 15 million jetty before end of year, which will accommodate ships up to 315 meters long , and dredging to 11 meters , and next year  dunlaoghaire has already got 23 cruise ships confirmed with over 66,000 passangers arriving. Personally I still think there is a market for a seasonal high speed ferry from Dun laoghaire ,all the infrastructure is in place , all one needs is the ship and company , but are there any takers ,I can't see anyone with the money out there to take over the route , stena are the boys in the industry with the cash , I mean they were able to spend 200 million euros developing lough Ryan,I don't think there is many companies out there that could have done that. Interesting times ahead, with all these developments that's for sure