Falkland Islands Shipping

Despite having 2 ports where ships can berth, the Falkland Islands suffer from the tyranny of distance, and a unfriendly neighbor - Argentina.

There are two shipping services services servicing the Falkland Islands. The first service is from Britain using 2 large roll-on/roll-off vessels primarily to service the military facilities at Mt Pleasant providing a monthly service. Space is available on this service to the civilian population, however the military have first priority. These ships dock at Mare Harbour, some 35 miles from the capital, Stanley.

The other shipping service is named South American Atlantic Service (SAAS). The General Manager of SAAS, Eugene Hurley, was very kind to show me the SAAS facilities in Stanley. SAAS is 50/50 owned between the Falkland Islands Government & a private company, Consolidated Fisheries Ltd. SAAS charters the vessel, MV Scout with a capacity of 292 containers. The ship operates between Port Stanley & Montevideo in Uruguay, with an additional 4 voyages a year to Punta Arenas in Chile. SAAS have arrangements with other shipping lines to & from Montevideo to provide services to the UK, USA & other worldwide ports.

In Port Stanley, the Scout docks at the Falklands Interim Port and Storage System, known simply as FIPASS. FIPASS consists of 6 interconnected floating barges and was installed by the British Military shortly after the 1982 Falklands conflict. Since the construction of the military facilities at Mt Pleasant & Mare Harbour, FIPASS is now operated the Falkland Islands Goverment to service the civilian cargo ships, fishing industry, oil exploration vessels, as well as a ship repairs. The FIPASS facility is able to handle both 20' & 40' containers at the maximum weight of 30 tonnes together with the Forklifts to move the containers around and on & off the container trucks. However FIPASS is almost 30 years old & was built as a temporary, interim facility & the Falkland Islands Government have announced their intention to build a much larger port facility at Port William, which is the entrance to Port Stanley.

The biggest issue they have is Argentina. While the fighting war stopped 30 years ago, Argentina effectively operates a economic bar. They only allow one LAN Airlines flight a week though Argentinian airspace, they will not allow shipping lines to carry cargo both to Argentinian ports & the Falkland Islands. As a result SAAS has to charter it's own vessel, and operate it's fleet of unbranded containers. Despite these restrictions SAAS only charge US$3,000 for a 20' container from Montevideo to Port Stanley. This works at around US$120m3 to US$150m3 depending on how much cargo is packed in the container

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