TRADE THROUGH Ireland’s biggest port fell by more than 10 per cent last year, but tourism traffic increased, according to the latest figures.

Dublin Port Company, the State enterprise which operates the capital’s port, said yesterday that total trade in 2009 fell 10.5 per cent to 26.5 million tonnes from 29.6 million the previous year.

Ferry passengers and tourist cars increased during the year, with the former increasing 18 per cent to 1.5 million in 2009 from 1.3 million in 2008 and the latter growing 24 per cent to 183,000 from 147,000.

Almost 80 cruise liners visited the port in 2009, carrying 120,000 passengers and crew to Dublin. Both those figures were in line with the previous year.

Dublin Port’s chief financial office, Michael Sheary said yesterday that cruises acted as a useful shop window for tourism.

Up to 50 per cent of those who arrive in the country for the first time on cruises return for longer visits. The port company estimates that cruise liner visits generate in the region of €35 million to €50 million for Dublin’s economy.

More than three-quarters of trade through the port is “unitised” goods, that is mainly consumer products which embraces everything from food to clothing

This came to 20.7 million tonnes last year, a 10 per cent fall on 2008, which the company said was a result of depressed retail sales in 2009. Bulk solids showed the sharpest fall last year, with totals dropping to 1.6 million tonnes from 2.4 million in 2008.

The fall is mainly attributable to the fall-off in construction last year, as cement accounts for part of this business. Its other elements include ore imports and animal feeds. Bulk liquids dropped 0.7 per cent to four million tonnes.

This business includes motor fuel and aviation spirit and much of that trade was stable throughout the year.

The company said yesterday that the figures indicated that trade began to stabilise at the end of last year. Trade volumes in the final three months of 2009 were 6.9 million tonnes, which were broadly in line with the same period in 2008.

Monthly trade levels were steady at around 2.2 million tonnes a month from April.

Commenting on the statistics yesterday, chief executive Enda Connellan said it was encouraging to see that trade stabilised in 2009, although it was down 14 per cent on its 2007 peak.

“We are still handling four to five times the level of trade that we did 15 years ago,” he said.