DUBLIN

Located at the mouth of the LIFFEY River on the central east coast of Ireland, at the top of Dublin Bay and southwest of the IRISH SEA, it is the capital and main port of Ireland. It was built by Scandinavians as early as the 9th century, and later the Danes used river mouths for trade and economic development. In 1170, the Angles and Normans established Dublin Castle, which expanded in the 18th century and became the capital in 1841. Located at a transportation hub, railways, highways, and canals radiate towards the western hinterland. The main industries include metallurgy, machine manufacturing, shipbuilding, food processing, textiles, and chemical engineering. The airport is about 10km away from the city center and has regular flights to countries such as the UK, US, Canada, and Western Europe. The port has a temperate maritime climate with prevailing southwest winds. The average temperature in the coldest month is 4-7 ℃, and the average temperature in the hottest month is 12-15 ℃. The average annual rainfall is about 900mm. The average tidal range is as follows: during the major flood season, the high tide is 4.1m and the low tide is 0.6m; during the minor flood season, the high tide is 3.4m and the low tide is 1.5m. The main dock berths in the port area are as follows: Dock name, number of berths, shoreline length (m), maximum water depth (m) ───────── ────── ────── ────── General Cargo 7 1528 10.4 BULK CARGO 10 2252 11.4 OIL QUAY 6 1268 11.3 Container 5 1077 11.4 RO/RO (Roll on/Roll off) 2 340 6 ─── ──── 30 6465 There are various types of loading and unloading equipment, including shore cranes, grab cranes, container cranes, gantry cranes, unloading cranes, unloading machines, conveyors, and roll on/roll off facilities, among which there is also a large crane with a lifting capacity of up to 100 tons. The oil terminal has oil pipelines of different sizes leading to various oil companies, and can accommodate up to 35000 deadweight tons of oil tankers. The lifting and roll on/roll off business in the port is relatively large, accounting for 51% from 1987 to 55% in 1988. Unloading speed: 3000 tons of grain per day, 250 tons of paper per day per worker. In 1994, the container throughput was 277000 TEUs, an increase of 5% compared to 1993. The main imported goods are coal, grains, timber, oil, fertilizers, and groceries, while the exported goods mainly include meat, beer, whiskey, livestock, and agricultural products. As Irish agricultural products have opened up new export markets in Europe, the port's lifting and roll on/roll off business is showing a growing trend.