EU ports rebounding from pandemic disruptions

In 2022, the total gross weight of seaborne freight handled in all EU ports was estimated at 3.48 billion tonnes, which was an increase of 0.8% compared with 2021 (3.45 billion tonnes). Pandemic disruptions led to a 7.3% fall in 2020 (compared with 2019), but 2021 (+3.9%) was already a more positive year, with data showing a partial recovery from 2019. 

Compared with 2007, the annual change rate for gross weight of seaborne freight until 2022 was 2.8%. The annual change rate between 2015 and 2022 was 3.1%, showing an almost steady growth.  

This information comes from data on maritime transport published recently by Eurostat. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on maritime freight and vessel statistics.

Source dataset: mar_mg_aa_cwh

The Netherlands remains the main maritime freight transport country

The Netherlands remained the largest maritime freight transport EU country in 2022. Dutch ports (Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Zeeland) handled 565 million tonnes of goods (+9 million tonnes compared with 2021), which was 16% of the total volume of seaborne goods handled last year in the EU. 

Rotterdam in the Netherlands (427 million tonnes), Antwerpen-Bruges in Belgium (254 million) and Hamburg in Germany (103 million), all located on the North Sea coast, maintained their positions as EU's top three ports in 2022, both in terms of the gross weight of goods handled and volume of large containers handled in the ports, accounting for more than a fifth of the total (22.5%). 

Compared with 2021, the number of tonnes handled in 2022 decreased the most in the Greek port of Piraeus (-8.8%), Bremerhaven in Germany (-8.6%) and Valencia in Spain (-7.1%). In contrast, it increased the most in Gdańsk in Poland (+40.3%), Cartagena in Spain (+17.3%) and in Constanţa (+15.2%) in Romania.

Source dataset: mar_mg_aa_pwhd

More information

• Statistics Explained article on maritime freight and vessels statistics
• Thematic section on transport statistics
• Database on transport statistics
  

Methodology notes

Starting from 2022, the ports Antwerpen and Zeebrugge have been merged and the data are reported under the new port name Antwerp-Bruges.There is a break in time series from 2021 due to methodological improvement in the data reported by the Netherlands.

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