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The Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Jonathan Taylor, will meet today with Dublin Port Company representatives to finalize EUR 100 million (USD 110.5m) financing arrangements for Dublin Port’s Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) Project.

The EIB has committed to providing the EUR 100 million loan amortizing over 20 years, marking the first time in 20 years for the EIB to finance port infrastructure development in Ireland.

The largest single infrastructure development project in the history of Dublin Port, Dublin Port’s ABR Project is expected to take five years to complete, costing an estimated EUR 230 million. An analysis by Indecon International Economic Consultants of the wider economic impacts arising from the ABR Project found that for every EUR 1 million in economic costs, the project is associated with EUR 2.80 million in economic benefits.

Today’s meeting comes as trade volumes continue to rise at Dublin Port in line with projections for a record year in 2015. New figures show total throughput for the year to September 30 was 24 million gross tonnes, an increase of 5.8% on the 23 million tonnes handled in the first nine months last year.

Imports rose 6% to 14.4 million gross tonnes on the same trading period, while exports strengthened by 5.5% to reach 9.9 million gross tonnes.

Eamonn O’Reilly, Chief Executive, Dublin Port Company, said: “It is clear now that 2015 will be a record year and that yet more growth will come in future years as Ireland’s economy recovers. The strong growth on the import side and, within this, the 8.2% growth in petroleum imports from 2.7m to 2.9m tonnes and the 12,000 additional cars imported in the first nine months all come from the welcomed recovery in the domestic economy.”