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As Independent.ie writes, Britain is now far less important to Irish importers and exporters than it was before Brexit, figures show.

A report by the Economic and Social Research Institute has found that goods from England, Scotland and Wales now make up just 7.2pc of total Irish imports, down from 23.2pc in 2015, and 6.3pc of total Irish exports, down from 10.9pc in 2015.

The shift is due to Brexit, not Covid, the ESRI said.

Trade patterns on the island of Ireland have also shifted dramatically since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Between 2015 and February this year, Northern Ireland’s share of Ireland’s UK imports has increased more than sixfold, while it has almost doubled its share of total Irish exports to the wider UK.

Click here for more on the story. 

Published in Ports & Shipping
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Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.