The rude health of the Mid-West today gets the clearest of reflection from the activities of Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC).
With few, if any other entity at all, reaching into homes across the Mid-West on a daily basis like SFPC, take it that this semi-state company with responsibility for overseeing all commercial activity on the Shannon Estuary is the most accurate of economic barometers for the region.
While not a household consumer brand, its impact is equally ubiquitous. Imports include home heating oil, petrol, diesel, grassland seeds, fertilizers, coal and much more. In short, by the time people leave their home on any given morning, they will have consumed or used products dependent on materials being imported through the estuary.
So, when tonnages last year grew to a level almost on a par with the peak of the boom, it very much suggests that the wheels of the regional economy are turning very well again. With respect to Limerick Port alone, the tonnages almost tripled last year.
The numbers quantifying the company’s impact, as reflected in a recent Economic Impact Assessment compiled for it by W2 Consulting, are striking. Shannon Foynes Port Company facilitates trade valued at €7.6billion per annum, with an economic impact arising from this of €1.9bn – equivalent to 1 per cent of Ireland’s entire GDP.
Off the back of unprecedented levels of investment at the company’s ports and on the estuary over recent years, €1.8bn in capital expenditure is planned by SFPC and its customers for the lifetime of the port authority’s masterplan, Vision 2041.
Tellingly, from an employment impact perspective SFPC supports 3,372 jobs in the regional economy. Projected capital expenditure levels by SFPC and its customers in the five years up to 2019 alone will reach €277mn and of this, €40mn was spent at Foynes, the company’s largest port, over the past three years.
And the good news is that the prospects are even brighter.
The company’s ambitious plan, Vision 2041, is focused on helping to transform the estuary into an international economic hub by taking advantage of what rates with the most deep and sheltered harbours in Europe and the world.
You can read more of our Mid West industry special here.
