An “excellent” cruise season boosted business at Lerwick harbour during the first nine months of 2014, bosses said yesterday.
Lerwick Port Auhority (LPA) also said a continuing increase in cargo in the third quarter brought the volume over the nine months to 910,014 tonnes, up 6% on the same period last year.
Shipments this year include 144,243 tonnes of oil-related cargo, a rise of 4.5%.
There was a 14.7% increase in passengers to 154,381, with ferry passengers on the Aberdeen and Kirkwall routes up 4% to 111,357 and cruise passengers by 61% to a record 43,024.
LPA chief executive Sandra Laurenson said: “The increases were achieved against a background of an expected reduction in vessel arrivals, with fewer oil-related ships and fishing boats as well as fewer calls by roll-on/roll-off ferries due to refits, while an excellent cruise season provided a boost.”
The 3,850 arrivals were down 8%, with the total gross weight of vessels 8% lower at 9.6million tonnes.
Oil-related arrivals fell by 5.8% to 503, with their total gross weight down by 27% at 2.3million tonnes. The drop was expected after a spike in activity in 2013 due to one-off projects.
LPA said pilotage movements held steady at 1,153, with the 8.9million gross tonnes of vessels piloted up 5% due to the increase in visiting cruise ships.
There were 46,414 tonnes of fish landed, valued at £44.6million – up 1.5% on volume and 9.7% by value.
The total included 7,480 tonnes of white-fish worth £11.8million, down 11% on volume and 8% by value on a year ago, with the price rising by 3% to average £1,582 per tonne.