On Friday 8 April 2016 the container ship Northern Dedication berthed at the Port of Cork’s Deepwater Berth in Ringaskiddy as part of a weekly scheduled call from Central America to Cork. She was the largest container ship to berth in Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth and indeed in any Irish port.
With an overall length of 230m, a deadweight of 42,121 tonnes, the ship was carrying over 75 containers of fresh fruit, predominately Fyffes bananas. Each container held in excess of 100,000 bananas. The ship also discharged containers of pineapples and melons keeping Ireland’s fresh fruit stocks high.
Despite the size of the vessel, the discharge operation took just 6-8 hours, highlighting the Port of Cork’s capability as a Tier 1 port. Vessels of this size are common nowadays and, as the Port of Cork begins their expansion phase in Ringaskiddy, it is anticipated that more of these size vessels will become regular visitors to the Port of Cork.
Port of Cork Commercial Manager, Captain Michael McCarthy said: “There are very little restrictions at Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth, so when it comes to handling a vessel of this size, the port is more than capable. In the future we would hope to see more of these size vessels calling, as our port expands to meet the needs of our own customers and the needs of the global shipping community.”
In 2015 total container volumes through both Tivoli and Ringaskiddy Container Terminals in the Port of Cork grew by 8% compared to 2014 figures with over 205,000 TEU’s handled.
