The Stevedores strike at Bilbao port is set to continue as trade unions have called for the action to be extended further, with workers only giving a maximum of 50% service.
There is still extremely heavy congestion in the Port, as a result of this with unloading and loading of ships taking a number of days to be completed, which normally only takes a matter of hours. An example of this is; Our shipping line has a ship in Bilbao since last weekend which was re-routed from its normal rotation in Northern Europe in order to clear some of the backlog of containers caused by the strike. The ship is still waiting to be fully loaded, as soon as it is, it will be making its way to Dublin. This is of great frustration and huge cost to the shipping line and ourselves
Talks remain ongoing between both parties which we hope will be settled in the coming days.
We continue to look at all other alternatives from Spain in order to get cargo moving quicker. As we have previously mentioned, the knock on effects from the Strikes in Bilbao (and new Strikes announced for Valencia and Barcelona Ports) are causing congestion in all other Ports in Spain. We are working closely with other shipping lines in nearby Ports such as Santander & Gijon in order to get back to our normal transport schedule ASAP and we have started to move some loads, where possible, to these Ports for sailing.
As mentioned above, we have also been notified today of strike action called by the Stevedoring Unions in Valencia and Barcelona Ports starting from November 10th. Whilst we were looking closely at Valencia as an alternative option for departures from Spain, we do not currently have departures from these Ports and our operations will not be directly affected by these strikes. It will however add to the general chaos in Spain, with a shortage of equipment and hauliers available as ships are unable to discharge their cargo to make it available then for re loading and export to Ireland and elsewhere.
Below is an update on the current departures from Week 44 & Week 45
WEEK 44 (Week of 26th October – 30th October)
All shipments loaded in Week 44 will have received an Advice of Arrival from our Iberian team. As mentioned above, the arrival of this ship into Dublin is currently approx. 1 week delayed with all deliveries expected to be completed early next week. We will keep you updated individually on the ETA of your shipments.
WEEK 45 (Week of 2nd November – 6th November)
Shipments collected this week will be collected as normal and will be available for loading on the next available departure from Spain. Please note we do expect there will be a delay of approx. 1 week arriving into Dublin. We will continue to look for any alternative to get cargo moving sooner. Our Iberian department will send you updates on your shipments as soon as an approx. ETA is known.
We do truly appreciate your understanding and continued support. We also fully understand your frustrations caused by these delays which we share with you. We will , as promised above, continue to keep you updated as much as possible, once concrete information comes to hand and again thank you very much for your understanding.
