A eagerly awaited truck exiting the Stena Horizon ferry, this Wednesday, December 22. The Irishman Thomas Murphy, driver of a family business, was at the wheel of the 100,000th trailer transiting between Cherbourg and Ireland in 2021.
– Esteban Pinel
The figure is impressive, as is the rise in freight on these lines this year: “There are three times more trailers than in 2020 and 2019”, notes David Margueritte, president of the Cherbourg port. Brexit has been there. Businesses willingly bypass Great Britain in order to avoid customs and red tape. The Ireland-Cherbourg axis is European.
– Esteban Pinel
The main operators Stena Line and Irish Ferries (in addition to Brittany Ferries) saw the number of visitors “triple”, in the commodity market. If the rapid increase in demand has challenged companies, they have taken the fold. Stena Line runs two ships continuously. Irish Ferries one boat, or even two depending on the period. “This year, the number of rotations between Cherbourg and Ireland more than doubled to 587 rotations “, identifies a port official.
The modernization of the port for Brexit, a boon
Like other French ports, Cherbourg had prepared for Brexit. Eight million euros have been invested to bring infrastructure into line with the new measures. This modernization work is now very useful to manage these Irish flows.
– Esteban Pinel
The Manchese equipment took advantage of this dynamism to find a financial balance lost in 2020. In 2022, “we are counting on around 1000 stopovers”, slips the port manager, between ferries and liners. Not to mention the activities induced by offshore wind farms. Promising leads at the dawn of a change behind the scenes: January 1, a local public company, bringing together the Ports of Normandy and the Cotentin agglomeration community, will take the lead in managing the site. With the mission of making it even more attractive by relying on the territory (services, accommodation, etc.).