Ferry company Stena Line has said it has increased freight capacity to Belfast to reflect market demand created by Brexit.
t has redeployed its larger Stena Foreteller ship to the Belfast-Birkenhead route, adding 13% additional freight space.
Freight routes between Britain and the Republic have declined by 25% while trade routes into NI from Britain have seen monthly increases caused mostly by Brexit, the ferry company said.
Paul Grant, Stena Line trade director (Irish Sea), said: “We are seeing a prolonged distortion of the market in terms of the preferred freight routes between Britain and the island of Ireland. This presents an ongoing challenge for the entire logistics industry to keep pace with shifting demand and preferences.
“As the largest ferry network operator on the Irish Sea, providing 10 ships and five routes between Britain and the island of Ireland, Stena Line is uniquely placed to respond quickly to changing customer demands which is why we have redeployed the Stena Foreteller to operate on the Belfast-Liverpool service. We now have seven ships dedicated to our Belfast hub.
“It remains to be seen to what extent the current market distortions will become a permanent feature”.
