Ferry closed
Page 7
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FAILURE to attract additional investments and a savage ratecutting war have been blamed for the closure of Welsh/Irish Ferries and its three-month-old freight only service between Barry in South Wales and Cork.
The company was set up following the decision by B + I Line to end its service from Cork to Pembroke. Irish exporters persuaded the Welsh Development Agency to put up over £100,000.
Shareholders included John Cory Shipping of Cardiff, Barry's Coaches of Cork and R. A. Burke.
The cornpany chartered a ferry, the Ugland Trailer, but on the instruction of Irish Transport Minister Jim Mitchell, the stateowned B + I returned to Cork at least for the summer months.
This made it even more urgent for Welsh/Irish Ferries to attract a strong partner, preferably a shipping company, to take a majority shareholding. A meeting was held with Uglands, the Norwegian owner of the ferry, to become a major equity partner. However, the Norwegians later decided not to go ahead with the deal.
Closure came amid accusations of rate cutting by the B + I Line. Welsh/Irish was charging £25 per metre and according to its published schedule B + I was charging £38. However, it was claimed that with discount this figure was more than halved.
B + I has denied this claim.
The biggest loser could be the port of Cork. No final decision on the future of the B + I service will be taken until the autumn when the level of support for the summer service becomes clear.