Maritime ports freight and passenger statistics

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Data from January 2012, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article analyses the latest statistical data on freight handling and passenger traffic in ports in the European Union (EU). The total weight of goods handled in EU ports is estimated at 3.6 billion tonnes in 2010, a rise of 5.7 % compared with 2009. At 539 million tonnes, the Netherlands handled the largest volumes of seaborne goods in 2010, overtaking the United Kingdom as the largest maritime freight transport country in the EU.

Figure 1: Gross weight of seaborne goods handled in all ports (in million tonnes) 1997-2010
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_cwh) and (mar_go_gm)
Table 1: Gross weight of seaborne goods handled in all ports (in million tonnes) 1997-2010
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_cwhd)
Table 2: Gross weight of seaborne goods handled (inward and outward) in main ports in 2010 by type of cargo (in % of total cargo handled)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cwhc)
Table 3: Top 20 cargo ports in 2010 - on the basis of gross weight of goods handled (in million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd)
Map 1: Main European cargo ports in 2010 by gross weight of goods handled
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd)
Table 4: Top-20 container ports in 2010 - on the basis of volume of containers handled in (1 000 TEUs)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_pvh)
Table 5: Seaborne transport of goods between main ports in the reporting country and their partner ports grouped by main geographical areas (in % of total gross weight of goods transported) - 2009-2010
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cwt) and (mar_mg_am_cwtt)
Table 6: Number of seaborne passengers embarked and disembarked in all ports (in 1000) - 1997-2010
Source: Eurostat (mar_mp_aa_cph) and (mar_mp_aa_cphd)
Table 7: Top-20 passenger ports in 2010 - on the basis of number of passengers embarked and disembarked (in 1000)- 1997-2010
Source: Eurostat (mar_mp_aa_pphd)
Table 8: Seaborne transport of passengers (excluding cruise passengers) between main ports in the reporting country and their partner ports grouped by main geographical areas (in % of passengers (excluding cruise passengers) transported)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mp_am_cft) and (mar_mp_am_cftt)
Table 9: Number and gross tonnage (GT) of vessels in the EU27-FR main ports in 2010, by type of vessel (based on inwards declarations)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mt_am_csvi)
Table 10: Number and gross tonnage (GT) of vessels in the main ports in 2010, by type of vessel (based on inwards declarations)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mt_am_csvi)

Contents

Main statistical findings

Dutch ports handled close to 15 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in EU ports in 2010, followed by UK ports with 14.1 % and Italian ports with 13.6 %. Spain remained the fourth largest maritime freight transport country in the EU in 2010, with France the fifth largest.

Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg, all located on the North Sea coast, maintained their positions as the three largest EU ports in terms of both the gross weight of goods and the volume of containers handled. The 20 largest ports accounted for 39 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in the countries reporting data in 2010. Rotterdam alone accounted for more than 10 % of the total tonnage.

Inward movements of goods continued to dominate the maritime freight transport in Europe, mainly due to considerable inward volumes of liquid bulk goods such as crude oil and oil products. About 90 % of the seaborne goods transport in the EU in 2010 was international transport (extra-EU and intra-EU), while 10 % was national transport.

The number of passengers passing through EU ports is estimated to be about 396 million in 2010, a fall of 2 % compared with 2009. Close to 88 million passengers were embarked and disembarked in Italian ports in 2010, confirming Italy as the leading seaborne passenger transport country in Europe.

Port activity grew in most EU countries

A total of 3.6 billion tonnes of goods[1] were handled in EU ports (EU-27) in 2010, an increase of 5.7 % compared with 2009 (Table 1). Outwards transport grew slightly more than inwards transport (6.1 %).

The sustained growth in all four quarters of 2010, shown in Figure 1, and the substantial rise compared with the previous year indicate that European port activity continued its gradual recovery from the economic downturn in 2008/2009. Even so, the overall activity in EU ports was still lower in 2010 than the level recorded 5 years earlier, in 2005.

Port activity grew in most European countries in 2010. The largest increases were recorded in Poland, Estonia and Finland, while Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Lithuania also had double-digit increases in the tonnage of goods handled in their ports compared with 2009.

In contrast to this general trend, decreases in port activity were recorded in Greece (-8.2 %), Denmark (-3.9 %), Latvia (-2.3 %) and France (-0.6 %).

The Netherlands largest maritime freight transport country

One outcome of the changes in port activity following the economic downturn was that the Netherlands emerged as the largest maritime freight transport country in the EU, overtaking the United Kingdom. The 539 million tonnes handled in Dutch ports in 2010 represent close to 15 % of the EU-27 total.

The Netherlands is followed by the UK and Italy, handling 14.1 % and 13.6 % of the total tonnage in EU-27 ports, respectively. Spain remained the fourth largest maritime freight transport country in 2010, with France the fifth largest.

Inward movements of goods continued to dominate European seaborne transport in 2010. Inward transport made up close to 62 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in EU-27 ports in 2010, about the same share as in 2009. Considerable inward volumes of liquid bulk goods (which include crude oil and oil products) are the main reason for this.

In general, more seaborne goods are unloaded than loaded in most EU countries. Cyprus had the highest share of total tonnage unloaded in 2010 (87 %), followed by Malta (79 %) and the Netherlands (72 %). However, in Romania and the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) the outward movement of goods was dominant. For the three Baltic countries, this was largely due to outward movement of oil products. In Romania the largest outward cargo was agricultural products, which increased by 9 % in 2010.

The share of outwards goods was also dominant in the EEA country Norway. The total tonnages of outwards goods from Norwegian ports grew more than 7 % in 2010, mainly due to increased volumes of ores and dry bulk goods. However, there was a decrease of nearly 14 % in the tonnage of the main outwards product: crude oil.

Liquid bulk dominates maritime freight in Europe

In 2010, liquid bulk goods accounted for 41 % of the total tonnage of cargo handled in the main EU-27 ports, followed by dry bulk goods with 23 % and containers with 19 % (Table 2). Dutch ports handled by far the largest tonnage of liquid bulk goods (265 million tonnes). Poland saw the largest rise in the movements of liquid bulk goods in main ports in 2010, a result of increased crude oil transport to the Netherlands.

Estonia recorded the highest share of liquid bulk goods as a percentage of the total tonnage of goods handled in its main ports, reflecting outward movements of large volumes of Russian oil. Malta also had a considerable share of liquid bulk goods in 2010, mainly due to inwards movements of oil products from Italy. Liquid bulk also made up more than half of the tonnage of goods handled in Norwegian main ports, due to outwards movements of large volumes of North Sea oil.

Estonia recorded the largest increase in handling of dry bulk goods in main ports in 2010, while the Netherlands again had the largest tonnage (145 million tonnes). The largest shares of dry bulk goods in the percentage of the total tonnage of goods handled in main ports were recorded in Romania, Latvia, and Slovenia. For the last two countries, dry bulk volumes were mainly coal, while the main dry bulk goods in Romania were agricultural products.

Spain handled the most containers

The largest volumes of goods in containers were handled in Spain, with 112 million tonnes, and Germany, with 107 million tonnes. Container transport was the dominant type of cargo in the main ports of Belgium and Germany, with shares of 42 % and 40 % of total goods handled, respectively. Poland recorded the largest rise in the tonnage of goods in containers in 2010, due to increased inward movements from China and outward movements to Russia.

The shares of Ro-Ro units as a percentage of the total tonnage of goods handled in main ports were highest for Denmark (29 %), Ireland (28 %) and Sweden (26 %). However, the United Kingdom recorded by far the largest tonnage for Ro-Ro mobile unit movements (96 million tonnes), mainly due to cross-channel transport from Dover.

Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg remain top ports

Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg consolidated their positions as Europe's top three ports in 2010, with double-digit growth rates both for the gross weight of goods (Table 3) and the volume of containers handled (Table 4). In 2010, the top 20 ports accounted for 39 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in the countries reporting data (EU-27, Croatia and Norway), about the same as in 2009. Rotterdam alone accounted for more than 10 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in European ports in 2010.

Most of the cargo handling in the Dutch port of Rotterdam involves liquid and dry bulk goods such as oil, chemicals, coal and ores. Rotterdam is also Europe’s largest container port, handling a total of 11 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2010. Rotterdam plays an important role in the transport of products with intercontinental partners like Brazil (mainly inward traffic), South Africa (mainly inward traffic), the United States and the Far East.

Map 1 shows that half the 20 top ports in 2010 are located on the North Sea coast[2], five are Mediterranean ports and four ports are located on the Atlantic coast (three of which are on the Channel). Tallinn is the only top 20 port located on the Baltic Sea. There are no top 20 ports in the Black Sea.

The composition of the port infrastructure will sometimes determine if a country is represented on the top 20 list of ports or not. Denmark and Greece, for instance, are two countries with a high number of medium size ports (handling between 1 and 20 million tonnes of goods per year). However, there are no ports in these two countries above a 20 million tonnes threshold.

Tallinn new in the top 20

The most specialised ports in the top 20 are Milford Haven in the United Kingdom and Bergen in Norway, where 90 % or more of the cargo handled in 2010 was liquid bulk goods. In most of the top 20 ports, inward activity was prevalent. However, two exceptions were Bergen and Tees & Hartlepool in the United Kingdom, which both handled substantial tonnages of outward movements of crude oil.

Another exception was the port of Tallinn in Estonia, where outwards transport of oil products made up more than half the total of goods handled in 2010. A growth rate of 15.5 % compared with 2009 meant that Tallinn joined the list as the 19th largest cargo port in Europe in 2010.

Apart from the three top ports and Tallinn, the ports of Göteborg in Sweden (mainly liquid bulk), Valencia in Spain (mainly containers) and Milford Haven (mainly liquid bulk) experienced the largest growth in port activity in 2010. All these ports handled greater tonnages in 2010 than in the pre-downturn year of 2007.

Against that, some ports handling large volumes of liquid bulk goods experienced substantial decreases in 2010. Two of the main ports for exports of crude oil, Bergen and Tees & Hartlepool recorded decreases of 11.1 % and 8.9 %, respectively. The French ports of Le Havre and Dunkerque and the Italian port of Genova also saw substantial falls in the tonnages handled in 2010, mostly due to reduced inwards movements of liquid bulk goods such as crude oil and oil products.

Antwerpen overtook Hamburg in number of containers

In the specific segment for container handling, the Belgian port of Antwerpen overtook the German port of Hamburg in number of Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) handled in 2010, becoming the second largest container port in Europe. The top 3 ports are the same for the handling of the largest volume of containers and total tonnage of goods; Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg. All top three ports recorded double-digit growth rates in the number of TEUs handled in 2010 compared with 2009.

The Italian port of Gioia Tauro experienced the largest growth in number of TEUs handled in 2010, followed by the Italian port of La Spezia. For both these ports, the growth was mainly due to increased inward movements from China. The port of Piraeus in Greece also recorded a substantial rise in the number of TEUs, caused by increased movements to and from China and Turkey.

Bremerhaven and Valencia consolidated their position as the fourth and fifth largest container ports in Europe, with annual growth rates of 6.7 % and 15.2 %, respectively. The port of Liverpool in the United Kingdom overtook Constanta in Romania to become the 20th largest container port in Europe in 2010. The only three top 20 container ports recording decreases in the number of TEUs handled in 2010, were Genova in Italy, Algeciras in Spain and Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Increase in maritime transport within the EU

The results shown in Table 5 are calculated from statistics provided by main ports for their partner ports. Unlike figures shown in the earlier part of this article, these statistics do not correspond to the total handling of goods in ports (inwards movements plus outwards movements), but estimate the seaborne transport of goods between ports (see chapter on Data sources and availability).

In 2010, 63 % of the EU-27 seaborne goods were transported to or from a partner port outside the EU, making maritime transport by far the most important mode in tonnage terms for long distance transport of goods for the EU. International transport inside the EU accounted for about 26 % of the total tonnage of EU-27 seaborne goods in 2010, while national transport made up about 10 % of the total tonnage.

In total, EU-27 seaborne transport increased by 5.9 % from 2009 to 2010. International intra-EU transport grew by 8.9 % compared with 2009, more than international extra-EU transport (6.7 %). In contrast, the combined national seaborne transport in Europe decreased by 1 % in the same period. At the country level, the changes in seaborne transport compared with 2009 were comparable with the changes in the tonnage of goods handled in all ports (Table 1).

Early estimates suggest that the seaborne transport volumes to/from the main EU-27 ports expressed in tonne-kilometres increased between 6 % and 7 % in 2010, which is slightly more than the increase in the transported volumes of goods. The implication of this is that the overall average distance travelled by freight vessels in 2010 was longer than in 2009.

Shorelines determine share of national transport by sea

There are significant variations between countries in the shares of national and international transport. The share of national transport in countries with relatively limited shorelines is naturally low (less than 3 %). On the other hand, countries with relatively long shorelines, like Greece, Italy, Denmark and Norway, have a higher share of national transport (20-30 %).

Ireland, Latvia and Malta have the highest shares of international intra-EU transport (more than 70 %), due to the fact that their main trading partners are other EU countries. Some countries, like Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium, have high shares of extra-EU transport (above 65 %), based either on their geographical position or the "deep sea" nature of the transport activities prevailing in their main ports.

Continued decrease in passenger transport by sea

In contrast to the recent developments in maritime goods transport, seaborne passenger transport continued to decline in 2010 (Table 6). The total number of passengers passing through EU-27 ports in 2010 is estimated at 396 million (inwards movements plus outwards movements), a drop of 2 % compared to the previous year. There has been a year-by-year decrease in total number of seaborne passengers passing through EU-27 ports since 2007.

The time series in Table 6 show that some countries have experienced substantial drops in the number of seaborne passengers embarking and disembarking from one year to another. These sudden changes in the volume of seaborne passengers are typically caused by openings of new bridge connections and subsequent closure of ferry links. Increased use of the Channel tunnel and rapid growth in low cost flights are other factors having effects on the number of seaborne passengers in Europe.

Unlike goods movements (where broadly 2/3 of goods are unloaded and 1/3 loaded), the difference between the numbers of passengers embarking ("outwards") and disembarking ("inwards") in European ports are small. This reflects the fact that most passenger transport in Europe takes place on the main national and intra-EU ferry connections, so that the same passengers are counted twice (when they embark and disembark). Cruise passengers represent less than 3 % of the total number of passengers in EU-27 ports.

Italy and Greece leading seaborne passenger countries

Close to 88 million passengers were embarked and disembarked in Italian ports in 2010, confirming Italy as the leading seaborne passenger transport country in Europe. Italy was followed by Greece, with 84 million passengers. However, both the two leading countries recorded decreases of around 5 % in the total number of passengers embarking and disembarking in 2010.

Slovenia and Portugal recorded the largest decreases in number of passengers embarking and disembarking compared with 2009. The Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Belgium, on the other hand, all recorded double-digit growth in the number of seaborne passengers in 2010, albeit from relatively low levels in 2009.

Dover remained top passenger port

In 2010, the top 20 passenger ports accounted for about 39 % of the total number of passengers embarking and disembarking in the countries reporting data (EU-27, Croatia and Norway), about the same as in 2009 (Table 7). However, there is less variation in size between the top passenger ports than between the top cargo ports (Table 3).

Dover in the United Kingdom remained the largest passenger port in Europe, with more than 13 million passengers embarking and disembarking in 2010 despite the competition from the Channel Tunnel. As in 2009, Dover was followed by the partner ports of Paloukia Salaminas and Perama in Greece, which recorded nearly 13 million passengers embarking and disembarking at each end of the ferry link.

The ports of Napoli in Italy and Tallinn in Estonia recorded the largest growth in number of passengers in 2010, while the Italian port of Reggio Di Calabria and the partner ports of Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden recorded the largest decreases.

The significant fall in the number of passengers between Dover and the French port of Calais from 1997 to 2010 reflects the opening up of successful railway alternatives through the Channel Tunnel and the emergence of low cost air flights. The decline in the total number of passengers for the ports of Helsingør and Helsingborg in the same period is to some degree caused by the opening of the Øresund fixed link between the areas of Copenhagen and Malmö in 2000.

Eleven of the top 20 passenger ports are located on the Mediterranean (see Table 7) and seven ports are located on the Baltic coast. The remaining two ports, Dover and Calais, are situated on each side of the Channel on the Atlantic coast.

Most seaborne passenger transport is national

Table 8 shows for each country the breakdown of seaborne passenger transport (excluding cruise passengers) between national, international intra-EU and international extra-EU transport. These results are calculated on the basis of the statistics declared by main ports vis-à-vis their partner ports. Unlike the figures shown in Tables 6 and 7, these statistics do not reflect the total embarkation and disembarkation of passengers in ports, but estimate the transport of passengers between ports (see also chapter on Data sources and availability).

The estimated passenger transport reported by EU-27 main ports decreased by 4.1 % in 2010, compared with the previous year. The drop in passenger transport was mainly caused by decreases to and from ports in a number of countries with large volumes of seaborne passenger transport, like Italy, Greece and Denmark.

Most passenger transport by sea in the EU countries is national transport. In general, countries with a relatively long shoreline or a number of well populated islands have both a large volume of seaborne passenger transport and a high share of national passenger transport by sea. This applies to countries like Malta, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain. In contrast, countries with major regular ferry connections with other EU countries tend to have a high share of international intra-EU transport.

As in previous years, Spain and Denmark were the only two countries recording relatively large shares of extra-EU passenger transport in 2010. This is mainly due to the geographical position of the countries, with Spain having links with Morocco and Denmark with Norway.

Increase in vessels calling at main ports

The number of vessel calls at the main EU-27 ports (excluding French ports) increased by 4.4 % in 2010 (Table 9). The corresponding total gross vessel tonnage (GT) increased by 4% in the same period. The average gross tonnage of vessels was about 7 150 in both 2010 and 2009, confirming the trend towards larger average sizes of vessels calling at the main ports in the last two years.

As shown in Table 10, Italy recorded both the highest number of port calls and the largest gross tonnage of vessels making port calls in 2010 (519 000 vessels with a combined gross vessel tonnage of 2.9 billion tonnes). Greece had the second highest number of port calls (489 000 vessels), followed by Denmark (357 000 vessels).

On the other hand, the United Kingdom recorded the second largest gross tonnage of vessels calling in 2010 (2 billion tonnes), followed by Spain (1.7 billion tonnes). Vessel traffic data for France are currently only partially available and therefore not published (see chapter Data sources and availability).

The average size of all the vessels calling at the main EU-27 ports in 2010 varied from a gross tonnage of about 2 400 GT in Greece to about 20 200 GT in Finland. The average gross tonnage of vessels calling in the ports of the candidate country Croatia was even lower than in Greece (about 1 400 GT). In general, these differences reflect the variations in the structure of the maritime transport activities carried out in the various countries.

Non-specialized cargo vessels most common in EU ports

Vessels in the category “Cargo, non-specialized” had the highest share of calls in the main EU-27 ports in 2010, followed by passenger vessels, liquid bulk vessels and container vessels. The non-specialized cargo vessels also had the highest share of the combined gross tonnage of the calling vessels, followed by container vessels. Except for cruise ships, container vessels had the largest average gross tonnage of vessels in 2010.

Passenger vessels (excluding cruise passenger vessels) were the largest category of vessels calling in the main ports of Greece in 2010, and also accounted for a high share of the number of vessels calling at the main ports in Germany, Estonia, Spain and Croatia. There are, however, substantial differences in the average size of passenger vessels making port calls in various countries. Some countries, like Germany, Poland and Italy, have a large number of small passenger vessels calling in their main ports.

A similar variation is found for container vessels. Due to a dominance of feeder services, some countries, like Ireland, have a low gross tonnage for container vessels even though the number of vessels is quite high. In other countries, like Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Romania and Malta, the average size of container vessels calling in the main ports is much higher, reflecting a higher share of deep-sea oriented container transport or the presence of hub ports.

Italy attracts the most cruise vessels

Liquid bulk vessels calling at the main ports in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom had the largest combined gross vessel tonnages for liquid bulk vessels in 2010, mainly due to the fact that these are among the top five countries handling liquid bulk goods.

The reported combined gross tonnage of vessels connected to offshore activities were high in the United Kingdom and Norway, while Italy had by far the highest number and combined gross tonnage of cruise passenger vessels calling in main ports in 2010.

Data sources and availability

Due to legal derogations granted to Member States, data referring to the period 1997–1999 are not complete for all aspects at EU-15 level.

In general, data for the countries, which entered the EU in 2004 and 2007, are available starting with the reference year 2001 to 2003. As a consequence the geographical coverage of the data for the period 1997–2002 is not complete at the EU-27 level.

The EU-27 aggregate refer to total figures for the 22 Member States that have maritime ports. The Czech Republic (CZ), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Austria (AT) and Slovakia (SK) have no maritime ports. The EU-15 aggregate refer to the total figures for all countries with maritime ports which were Member States when Council Directive 95/64 was adopted (13 countries in all).

Iceland and Norway provide data as members of the European Economic Area (EEA). Liechtenstein has no maritime ports.

Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are EU candidate countries. Croatia provides data on a voluntary basis. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has no maritime ports.

As data are not available for Iceland for 2007-2010, a special aggregate EEA-IS+HR (excluding Iceland) is introduced into this publication to facilitate the comparability of certain time series.

Belgium (BE): In 2005, data sources for some ports were improved. In particular, data provided for Antwerpen are under-estimated before 3rd quarter 2004.

Bulgaria (BG): Up to 2006 data, Bulgaria reported the “gross gross weight” of goods. From 2007, the gross weight of goods is reported. This causes breaks in a number of time series.

Denmark (DK): -

Germany (DE): -

Estonia (EE) has started to report maritime transport statistics according to Directive 95/64 beginning with the 2002 reference year. For 2001 only aggregated data were provided.

Ireland (IE) has only started to report detailed data for Rosslare from 2009. This has an impact on results presented in Table 9.

Greece (EL): The statistical coverage of data has considerably improved between 2001 and 2002 reference years. In particular, collection of data on ferries started from the last quarter of 2001. From 1997 to 2003, in the “Passenger” tables, the number of passengers corresponds only to the number of non-cruise passengers (“ferry passengers”).

Spain (ES): Data include Ceuta and Melilla. The statistical coverage significantly improved in 2001 (inclusion of new ports). Only data for the “central government ports” (Puertos del Estado) are reported. Data for ports under the control of “regional governments” are missing. Data for the period 2003–2010 are provisional and likely to be revised.

France (FR): Data declared by France take into account goods and passenger handled in ports of the French overseas departments (Départements d’Outre Mer): Réunion, Guyane, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. Transport between those territories and mainland France is part of national transport. Vessel traffic data are only partially available for 2009 and 2010. As a result, they are not published (Table 10). A special EU-27-FR aggregate (EU-27 excluding France) has been introduced in Table 9 to facilitate the comparability of the EU time series.

Italy (IT): In 2005, data collection methods were partly modified. Data for 2009 for some Italian ports have better coverage than previous periods due to a change in data checking and compilation. In addition, data for some ports (for ex. Napoli and Brindisi) are under-estimated for the 4th quarter 2008.

Cyprus (CY): From 2002 to 2010, the data concerning cargo reported by Cyprus contain a significant share of declarations to and from unknown ports: 58 % in 2010, 61 % in 2009, 60 % in 2008, 59 % in 2007, 68 % in 2006, 44 % in 2005, 63 % in 2004, 70 % in 2003 and 59 % in 2002. From 2010, vessels calling at Cypriot ports are only counted when entering the port (inward movements), causing a break in the time series for vessel data in order for the figures to be comparable with figures for the other countries.

Latvia (LV): Latvian passenger statistics cover international traffic only. Up to 2003, cargo and vessel data covered international traffic only.

Lithuania (LT): The 2003 data for cargo, passengers and vessels covered international traffic only. For 2001 and 2002, passenger data covered international traffic only. Since 2005, cargo and vessel data cover international traffic only. Until 2004, data for the port of Klapeida included data for the port of Butinge.

Malta (MT): -

Netherlands (NL): From 2001 cargo, passenger and vessel data cover international traffic only.

Poland (PL): Up to 2003, cargo, passenger and vessel data covered international traffic only.

Portugal (PT): Data include the Açores and Madeira. The data on goods reported by Portugal contains a significant share of declarations to and from unknown ports: 13 % in 2010, 14 % in 2009.

Romania (RO): Up to 2006, no data on passengers was available. Up to 2002, cargo and vessel data covered international traffic only. Due to Romania's geographical characteristics, national maritime transport is not significant. The data concerning cargo reported by Romania contain a significant share of declarations to and from unknown ports: 6 % in 2010, 7 % in 2009, 13 % in 2008, 27 % in 2007 and 21 % in 2006.

Slovenia (SI): From 2003, cargo, passenger and vessel data cover international traffic only.

Finland (FI): Until 2000, cargo, passenger and vessel data cover international traffic only.

Sweden (SE): Data for some Swedish ports are considered confidential. To avoid disclosing confidential figures, Eurostat has introduced a special aggregate for these ports in the annual statistics.

United Kingdom (UK): Port installations located on the Tees estuary report as ‘Tees & Hartlepool’. Those located on the Humber estuary report as ‘Immingham’. Forth refers to port installations located in the Firth of Forth, close to Edinburgh. Forth used to be amongst the top 20 cargo ports (more than 45 million tonnes were handled in 1999). All three port groups are located on the East coast (North Sea) of the United Kingdom.

Croatia (HR): From 2004 data onwards, the statistical coverage of domestic traffic has improved.

Iceland (IS): Data are not available from 2007 to 2010

Norway (NO) started to report maritime transport statistics according to Directive 95/64/EC beginning with the 2002 reference year. The figures for the port Bergen also include Mongstad, Sture, Ågotnes, Eikefet, Askøy and Modalen.

Explanatory notes for tables

Basic results and derived indicators (such as growth rates and shares in % of total) shown in the tables are rounded. However, they are based on the non-rounded original data, as available in Eurostat database. As a result, the sum of "shares in % of total" as shown in the tables is not necessarily equal to 100%.

Table 1: Estonian data up to and including 2004 refer to main ports only. From 1997 to 1999 Greek data related to main ports only. Data for Spain relate to main ports only. Croatia started to report data on seaborne transport in 2000, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia in 2001, Cyprus in 2002 and Malta in 2003.

Tables 2 and 3: The category “Ro-Ro mobile units” includes "self-propelled” and “non self-propelled” units.

Tables 2, 3 and 4: The category “large containers” includes containers having a length of 20 feet or more. Smaller containers are included in the category “other cargo, not elsewhere specified”. There may be some inconsistencies concerning the registration of containers: in some cases data are limited to lift-on lift-off containers, in some cases containers transported by Ro-Ro units (that should be recorded under the category “Ro-Ro mobile units”) are also included in the figures.

Tables 5 and 8: In order to estimate maritime transport of goods/passengers, the problem of "double counting" (the transport of the same cargo of goods/passengers being declared by both the port of loading/embarking – as outwards – and the port of unloading/ disembarking – as inwards) has to be addressed. As far as possible, adjustments are made when estimating the "national transport" of individual countries and "international intra-EU-27 transport" of the EU-27. Ideally, to calculate these aggregates, one should only take inward declarations (or only outward declarations). In practice, for instance, national transport = national inward + "a part of" national outward declarations, "a part of" including those national outward declarations, for which the corresponding inward declarations of the partner port are missing.

The figures shown as "national transport" for the EU-27 are simply based on the sum of the national transport of the Member States.

In other words, the sum of the national and international intra-EU-27 transport of the EU-27 would represent the "national transport of the EU-27", if the EU-27 was treated as one country.

All the other figures (international intra-EU-27 transport for individual countries and international extra-EU-27 transport) are based on the sum of inward and outward declarations.

Table 6: Data include (cruise and non-cruise) passengers starting and ending a voyage: in principle cruise passengers on excursion (transit) are excluded. From 2004 to 2007 Slovenia provided only the total number of passengers (the breakdown cruise vs. non cruise was not yet available). There is no data for Germany for 1997-1999 (legal derogation). Estonian data up to and including 2004 refer to main ports only. Spain: data relate to main ports only. The Netherlands and Portugal only provide the number of non-cruise passengers (“ferry passengers”). Portugal: for 1997, only minor ports were reporting. Croatia started to report passenger data in 2000, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia started reporting in 2001, Cyprus in 2002, Malta in 2003 and Romania in 2007.

Table 7: Data include (cruise and non-cruise) passengers starting and ending a voyage: in principle cruise passengers on excursion (transit) are excluded. There are no data available for German ports up to and including 1999 (legal derogation). Estonia started to report passenger data in 2001.

Table 8: See above (Table 5).

Tables 9 and 10: There may be some inconsistencies between countries concerning the interpretation of “inward declarations” concept: either vessels entering the port or vessels unloading goods (disembarking passengers) in the port. Countries have recently started implementing a harmonised concept (vessel entering the port). This may have an impact in the time series (especially between 2009 and 2010 for DE, EL, CY, LT and HR). The breakdown by type of vessels should be considered with some caution, because of possible inconsistencies regarding the implementation of the classification of vessels (notably for "ferries").

Special symbols used in the tables

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Context

This article presents the latest trends in freight and passenger transport in European Union (EU) ports and also includes figures for Norway, Croatia and Turkey (2008-2009). The content is based on data collected within the frame of the EU maritime transport statistics Directive, i.e. "Directive 2009/42 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea" (OJ L141 of 6.6.2009, page 29), which is a recast of the original Council Directive 95/64(EC) of 8 December 1995.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Maritime transport (t_mar)
Sea transport of goods (ttr00009)

Database

Maritime transport (mar)
Maritime transport - Main annual results (mar_m)
Maritime transport - Short Sea Shipping - Main annual results (mar_s)
Maritime transport - Passengers (mar_pa)
Maritime transport - Goods (mar_go)
Maritime transport - Vessel traffic (mar_tf)
Maritime transport - data aggregated at standard regional levels (NUTS) (mar_rg)

Dedicated section

Methodology/Metadata

Other information

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ This statistical article is based on data collected in the framework of the EU maritime transport statistics Directive (Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea). Not all Member States have reported for all aspects during the period 1997–2010. Methodological and other explanatory notes including country-specific remarks are available at the end of the artcle. Detailed data are available in the maritime transport database, freely accessible on the Eurostat web site.
  2. ↑ The definitions of sea regions are available in the publication "Short Sea Shipping of Goods – 2008". Top 20 ports are named and their handling activity shown as bars in the map.
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