It is a vital gateway for raw materials, exports and consumer goods, and is also Northern Ireland's leading logistics and distribution hub.
Over firms employing 23, people are located within the estate. Belfast is only one of two ports on the island of Ireland to handle a full range of cargoes, from freight vehicles to containers, dry, break and liquid bulk, as well as passenger services and cruise calls. Belfast Harbour handled 23 million tonnes of cargo during , similar to its throughput for The tonnages suggest a varying performance between sectors in the wider Northern Ireland economy.
Belfast Harbour's origins date back to when a royal charter for the incorporation of Belfast specified the need for a wharf at the confluence of the rivers Lagan and Farset in what is modern-day Belfast's High Street. In the 's Samuel Kelly started a coal commissions and grocer along the docks.
When he died in , his son, John Kelly , took over and named it John Kelly's Coal Company, he would expand his fleet of ships and continue to important coal from various coal boats. John Kelly passed away in , his son, Sir Samuel Kelly would drive the company to new heights. They are now known as Kelly's Fuels in the 's after the coal industry began to fall.
George Benn, in his History of the Town of Belfast described the early harbour as a poor little harbour'. This small and most obscure port was the nucleus of the great docks and harbour of modern days. Records show that by there were 29 vessels owned in Belfast with a total tonnage of 1, tonnes. Trade continued to expand throughout the century, to the extent that the original quay was enlarged, to accommodate the increasing number of ships.
