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Displaying items by tag: St. Petersberg

Cargo volumes through the port of Drogheda have increased by 4% in 2010 compared to 2009 levels, notably due to the importation of agri-products. The rise in traffic figures recorded by the Drogheda Port Company, provides some positive economic news.
On the export front, the Co. Louth port performed well last year, particularly with increased volumes in cement and magnesite, bringing a boost to the local economy. In addition there was an un-expected and unique trade in potatoes, following a severe drought that gripped the Russian Federation.The inaugural shipment of over 2,500 tonnes was loaded on board the M.V. Blankenese in mid-November. The vessel sailed to St. Petersberg where a further three such shipments took place.

In order to facilitate the recovery of the economy, ports with increased capacity will play a vital strategic role in expanding export-driven trade. Plans by the Drogheda Port Company to the development of a proposed new port at Bremore in north Co. Dublin, remain a key objective of the company, with a planning application currently in preparation.

Published in Ports & Shipping
20th November 2010

To Russia with ‘Potatoes’

As a severe drought grips Russia, over 2,500 tonnes of potatoes were loaded on board the mv Blankenese in Drogheda yesterday. The vessel was bound for St. Petersberg and a further three shipments are scheduled in the new export trade, according to the Drogheda Port Company.
In total 10,000 tonnes of potatoes (roosters, kerr pinks and whites) are to be exported to Russia. The new trade has boosted a yield of 30% in prices for Irish farmers and follows a bumper growing season with an oversupply of 50,000 tonnes on an annual domestic consumption of 350,000 tonnes.

Asides the cash crop, Drogheda Port has established shipping trades routes in the carriage of containers units, fertilizers, magnesite, LPG and newsprint. In addition the Co. Louth port operates the country's only weekly service to Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) is one of Europe's biggest yacht racing clubs. It has almost sixteen hundred elected members. It presents more than 100 perpetual trophies each season some dating back to 1884. It provides weekly racing for upwards of 360 yachts, ranging from ocean-going forty footers to small dinghies for juniors.

Undaunted by austerity and encircling gloom, Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC), supported by an institutional memory of one hundred and twenty-nine years of racing and having survived two world wars, a civil war and not to mention the nineteen-thirties depression, it continues to present its racing programme year after year as a cherished Dublin sporting institution.

The DBSC formula that, over the years, has worked very well for Dun Laoghaire sailors. As ever DBSC start racing at the end of April and finish at the end of September. The current commodore is Eddie Totterdell of the National Yacht Club.

The character of racing remains broadly the same in recent times, with starts and finishes at Club's two committee boats, one of them DBSC's new flagship, the Freebird. The latter will also service dinghy racing on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Having more in the way of creature comfort than the John T. Biggs, it has enabled the dinghy sub-committee to attract a regular team to manage its races, very much as happened in the case of MacLir and more recently with the Spirit of the Irish. The expectation is that this will raise the quality of dinghy race management, which, operating as it did on a class quota system, had tended to suffer from a lack of continuity.