Data extracted in November 2024.
Planned update: 4 December 2025.
Highlights
EU ports handled 3.4 billion tonnes of goods in 2023.
The Netherlands remained the largest maritime freight transport country in Europe in 2023.
Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges and Hamburg maintained their positions as Europe's top 3 ports in 2023.
Gross weight of seaborne freight handled in all ports, 2023 (tonnes per capita)
This article presents the latest statistical data on goods handling and vessels traffic in ports in the European Union (EU), the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway and the candidate countries Montenegro and Türkiye. It also covers maritime transport flows with the main partner geographical areas, as well as individual results for major EU ports. This article contains data for 2023.
Seaborne goods handled in EU ports decreased by 3.9% in 2023
The total gross weight of goods handled by EU ports was estimated at 3.4 billion tonnes in 2023, decreasing compared with 2022 (-3.9%). The decline in goods handled, can be mainly attributed to the restrictions on goods transport with Russia, after its military aggression against Ukraine. Despite the rebound after the substantial fall observed in 2020, most probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent restrictions put in place in the EU and worldwide, the 2022 levels were still slightly lower than those observed in 2018. Before the downturn in 2020, EU port freight activity followed a positive trend from 2014 onwards, showing a slight upturn in recovery after the economic crisis in 2009.
Following growth in the first three quarters of 2022 compared with the previous year, a decline occurred from the final quarter of 2022 to the last quarter of 2023 (Figure 1).
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(million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_cwh) and (mar_go_qm)
The Netherlands remained the largest maritime goods transport country in Europe in 2023, while Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges[1], Hamburg and Amsterdam maintained their positions as the four largest goods ports in the EU.
Among the EU countries, the seaborne freight-per-capita ratio varied from 30.5 tonnes per inhabitant in the Netherlands to 3.2 tonnes per inhabitant in Germany in 2023. The EU average was 7.5 tonnes per inhabitant. However, the EFTA country Norway recorded the highest ratio of countries reporting maritime data to Eurostat, with 39.2 tonnes per inhabitant in 2023 (Figure 2).
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(tonnes per capita)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_cwh)
The Netherlands is the EU's largest maritime goods transport country
The Netherlands reported the largest volume of seaborne goods handled in Europe in 2023. At 545 million tonnes, the volume of seaborne goods handled in Dutch ports represented 16.1% of the EU total in 2023. The Netherlands was followed by Italy and Spain, with respective shares of 14.8% and 14.0% (Figure 3).
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(million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_cwh)
Among other countries reporting maritime freight data to Eurostat, the candidate country Türkiye handled 514 million tonnes of goods in 2023, placing this country between the Netherlands and Italy in terms of total tonnage of seaborne goods handled.
Compared with 2022, 5 out of 22 EU coastal countries registered a growth in port freight activity in 2023. Malta registered the largest relative increase (+47.5%), followed by Romania (+14.9%) and Poland (+14.7%). Conversely, the most relative declines were recorded in Estonia (-31.0%) and Latvia (-21.5%).
All in all, only 8 EU countries recorded decreases in port freight activity in the 10-year period between 2013 and 2023. The steepest relative falls were observed for Estonia (-46.4%), Latvia (-46.2%), France (-10.3%) and Germany (-9.9%). By contrast, Malta registered the largest relative increase (+132.5%), followed by Poland (+112.2%) and Romania (+58.9%). Five other EU countries registered growths more than 18% over the same period, while six additional countries recorded growths between 4% and 18%. Türkiye also reported noticeable increases: +35.6%.
Inward movements of goods to EU countries decreased by 4.3% to almost 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 compared with 2022, whereas outwards movements decreased by 3.2%, to just under 1.3 billion tonnes. Inward movements accounted for 61.7% of the total tonnes of goods handled in the EU ports (Figure 4). Liquid bulk goods, such as crude oil and oil products, made up a substantial proportion of the inward tonnage.
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(%, based on tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_cwhd)
More seaborne goods are unloaded from vessels than loaded onto vessels in most EU countries. Malta had the most shares of unloaded goods in 2023, with 85.2% of the total tonnes of seaborne goods recorded as inward movements to their ports. By contrast, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, the EFTA countries Norway and Iceland all had more outward movements of goods than inwards movements.
In 2023, liquid bulk made up 37.9% of the total cargo handled in the main EU ports
Liquid bulk goods accounted for 37.9% of the total cargo handled in the main EU ports in 2023 (Figure 5), followed by containerised goods (22.7%), dry bulk goods (21.6%), and goods transported on Ro-Ro mobile units (12.7%). The largest volumes of liquid bulk goods were handled in the Netherlands (265 million tonnes), followed by Italy (205 million tonnes) and Spain (175 million tonnes). France recorded the most shares of liquid bulk goods as a percentage of the total tonnages passing through its main ports in 2023 (50.9%). Liquid bulk goods were predominant in 12 EU countries. This was also the case for the EFTA country Norway (47.8%).
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(%, based on tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cwhc)
With 130 million tonnes in 2023, Dutch ports also handled the largest volumes of dry bulk goods in the EU, followed by Spain with 98 million tonnes. The tonnages of dry bulk goods handled in both the Netherlands and Spain in 2023 were lower than the 186 million tonnes reported by Türkiye. Romania had the most shares of dry bulk goods as a percentage of the total tonnages in 2023 (60.6%), largely due to substantial outward movements of agricultural products from its ports. Latvia (58.4%), Bulgaria (44.3%) and Denmark (29.3%) were the other EU countries where dry bulk goods were predominant. This was also the case for the candidate country Türkiye (36.2%).
Containers were the dominant type of cargo handled in Slovenian, German, Belgian and Portuguese ports in 2023, with shares of 42.3%, 38.3%, 38% and 36.1%, respectively, of the total cargo passing through the ports of the four countries. The largest volumes of containerised goods, however, were handled in Spanish and Dutch ports, with 145 million tonnes and 105 million tonnes, respectively. The two top container countries were followed by Belgium and Germany with 104 and 103 million tonnes of containerised, respectively.
The share of Ro-Ro mobile units in the total tonnage of goods was the most for Ireland (33.4%) and Estonia (31.2%), reflecting the importance of Ro-Ro ferry traffic in the seaborne transport of these countries. In tonnage terms, Italy (113 million tonnes) recorded the largest EU volumes of goods transported on Ro-Ro mobile units in 2023.
In 2023, the largest individual goods category handled in the main EU ports was 'Coal and lignite; crude petroleum and natural gas'
Figure 6 presents the share of the type of goods (according to the NST 2007 classification) handled in the main EU ports. It is significant to note that the high share of unidentifiable goods reported impacts the results presented.
At EU level, the main types of goods (according to the NST 2007 classification) handled in the main EU ports were 'Coal and lignite; crude petroleum and natural gas' (21.0%) and 'coke and refined petroleum products' (16.1%), in 2023. These two categories represented over one third of all goods handled in the main EU ports.
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(%, based on tonnes)
Source: Eurostat - (mar_mg_am_cwhg)
The port of Gdańsk enters the top 5 cargo ports in the EU in 2023
Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges and Hamburg, all located on the North Sea coast, maintained their positions as the EU's top 3 ports in 2023, both in terms of gross weight of goods handled and volume of containers handled in the ports. The 20 largest cargo ports accounted for half (49.9%) of the total tonnage of goods handled in the EU ports in 2023. The largest port in Europe, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, on its own accounted for 11.9% of the total tonnage handled in the EU ports (Figure 7).
Gdańsk achieved the status of the seventh biggest cargo port in the EU during 2023. Among the top 20 EU ports, the tonnes of goods handled in 2023 decreased in 14 ports compared with 2022. The steepest falls were recorded by Amsterdam (-15.4%), Trieste and 'Zeeland Seaports' (-12.6%), Göteborg (-12.5%), Dunkerque (-12.4%) and Barcelona (-10.4%). By contrast, Gdańsk reported the most growth, with +26.3%, followed by Constanţa (+17.0%), Piraeus (+5.6%), Genova (+5.4%), Cartagena (+3.1%) and Marseille (+0.4%).
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(million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd)
While inward activity was prevalent in 17 of the top 20 ports, the ports of Constanţa (60.3%), Bremerhaven (54.3%) and Valencia (50.8%) marginally recorded more outward than inward movements of goods (Figure 8).
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(%, based on tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd)
Among the top 20 cargo ports, Bremerhaven (89.0% of total tonnage in 2023), Piraeus (85.8%), and Valencia (70.1%) stood out as the most specialised in container handling. The most specialised in handling liquid bulk goods were Cartagena (74.4%) and Trieste (70.3%); the most specialised in handling dry bulk goods were Constanţa (60.6%) and 'Zeeland Seaports' (53.9%); the most specialised in handling goods transported on Ro-Ro mobile units was Göteborg (24.7%) (Figure 9).
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(% share in tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_pwhc)
All in all, 8 of the top 20 EU cargo ports in 2023 were located on the Mediterranean, 7 on the North Sea coast of Europe, 3 ports on the Atlantic coast, 1 port in the Baltic Sea and 1 port in the Black Sea (Map 1). Whether a country makes the top 20 list of cargo ports can sometimes depend on the structure of its national port system. Denmark and Finland, for instance, are countries with numerous medium-sized ports, all handling volumes of goods lower than the 35 million annual tonnes required to make the top 20 list.
Most EU maritime goods transport is with extra-EU partners
Unlike the statistics presented earlier in this article, the data in Table 1 and Figure 10 do not present the total handling of goods in ports (inward movements plus outward movements in the ports), but show the movement of seaborne transport of goods between the main European ports and their partner ports. As far as possible, double counting of the same goods being reported as outward transport in one port and inward transport in another, is excluded in these figures (see data sources).
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(million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cwt)
At almost 2.9 billion tonnes, the EU seaborne transport of goods decreased between 2022 and 2023 (-4.3%) (Table 1). Most of these goods (68.9%) were transported to or from ports outside the EU (international extra-EU transport), making maritime transport the most common mode for long-distance transport of goods to or from the EU, in tonnage terms. Cross-border transport between ports in the EU (international intra-EU transport) made up 20.4% of the maritime transport of goods in 2023, while transport of goods between national ports made up 8.5% of the total EU maritime transport (Figure 10).
(%, based on tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cwtt)
In countries with long shorelines or many islands, such as Italy, Greece and also Norway, the share of national seaborne transport tends to be relatively high (20-24% in 2023). Countries like Estonia, Finland, Malta, Sweden, Cyprus, Latvia and Denmark, however, had high shares of international intra-EU transport (above 50% in 2023), because their main maritime freight transport partners are found within the EU. Other countries, such as Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Spain, Croatia, France, Germany and Portugal (above 60% in 2023), have high shares of extra-EU transport, based on their geographical position or the 'deep-sea' nature of the transport activities prevailing in their main ports.
Map 2 illustrates the largest maritime transport flows between the EU and the main international partners. As shown in the map, most of the EU's top 10 maritime flows of goods in 2023 were inward flows, except for the outward flow to the United Kingdom and the East Coast of the USA. In declining order, these were the inward flows of goods from the East Coast of the USA (8.5% of the total extra-EU seaborne transport in 2023), the outward flow to the United Kingdom (5.4%), the inward flows from Norway (5.3%), the United Kingdom (4.9%), Brazil (3.8%), China (3.7%), Türkiye (3.6%), Egypt (3.4%), the outward flow to the East Coast of the USA (2.6%), and the inward flow from the Black Sea area of Russia (2.2%).
Source: Eurostat Maritime transport - Goods (mar_go)
In 2023, 92.4 million TEUs of containers were handled in the main EU ports
In 2023, 92.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) were handled in the main EU ports (Figure 11), decreasing by 4.4% compared with 2022. When looking at loaded containers, the decrease in 2023 was more substantial (-4.7%) compared with the decrease in the handling of empty containers (-2.8%).
.png)
(million TEUs)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cvh)
Spain reported the largest volumes of containers handled in Europe in 2023. At 16.4 million TEUs, the volume of containers handled in Spanish ports represented 17.7% of the EU total in 2023 (Figure 12). Spain was followed by the Netherlands (14.8%), Germany (13.7% of the EU total), Belgium (12.4%) and Italy (11.8%). All together, these five countries had 70.5% of the containers handled in main EU ports in 2023.
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(million TEUs)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cvh)
All countries reported more loaded containers than empty containers. The shares of empty containers handled was the least in Italy and Malta (1.2% and 7.8% of the containers handled in the main ports of the country, respectively) and the most in Lithuania (42.1%) (Figure 13).
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(%, based on TEUs)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_cvh)
With 13.1 million TEUs handled, Rotterdam was EU’s largest container port in 2023 (Figure 14). Rotterdam was followed by Antwerp-Bruges with 11.4 million TEUs and Hamburg with 7.7 million TEUs handled in total. All in all, 9 of the top 20 container ports recorded increases in the number of TEUs handled compared with 2022. In relative terms, the largest growth was observed for La Spezia (+56.7%), gaining 2 positions compared with 2022. Gdańsk also recorded a significant increase of 18.2%. By contrast, the steepest relative falls amongst the top 20 EU container ports were recorded by Gioia Tauro (-21.8%), HAROPA[2] (-15.6%), Bremerhaven (-8.2%), Hamburg (-7.3%) and Barcelona (-7.0%).
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(million TEUs)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_pvh)
All top 20 EU container ports reported more loaded containers than empty containers. The shares of empty containers handled was the least in Genova (0.8% of the containers handled in the main ports of the country) and the most in Klaipėda (42.1%) (Figure 15).
.png)
(%, based on TEUs)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_am_pvh)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
This article presents the trends in goods transport in European Union (EU) ports and also includes figures for Iceland, Norway, Montenegro and Türkiye. The content is based on data collected within the legal framework for EU maritime transport statistics, i.e. 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 and later amendments. Directive 2009/42/EC is a recast of the original Council Directive 95/64/EC of 8 December 1995.
The EU aggregates in the statistics refer to the total of 22 maritime EU countries. Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia have no maritime ports. Norway and Iceland provide Eurostat with data as members of the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA country Liechtenstein has no maritime ports. Montenegro and Türkiye provide data as candidate countries.
'Main ports' are ports handling more than one million tonnes of goods annually (however, data for some smaller ports may be included in the published results). Data are presented at level of 'statistical ports'. A statistical port consists of one or more ports, normally controlled by a single port authority, able to record ship and cargo movements.
Explanatory notes:
Please note that data can be subject to revision and the latest data are available in Eurostat's online database.
Basic results and derived indicators (such as growth rates and shares in % of the total) in the tables are rounded. However, the figures are based on the non-rounded original data. As a result, the sum of shares in % of the total, as shown in the tables, is not necessarily equal to 100%.
Explanatory notes for countries are available in the metadata on the Eurostat website.
Starting from 2011, the figures for Spain include data for a number of minor regional ports outside the state-controlled port system. There is a break in time series from 2021 due to methodological improvements in data reported by the Netherlands. Montenegro started to report data on seaborne transport in 2012. Data have been partially estimated by Eurostat for a number of French ports for the period 2009-2016. Detailed data on main ports are not available for Iceland.
Type of cargo (Figures 5 and 9):
- Liquid bulk: liquefied gas, crude oil, oil products, other liquid bulk goods.
- Dry bulk: ores, coal, agricultural products (e.g. grain, soya, tapioca), other dry bulk goods.
- Large containers: 20 ft freight units, 40 ft freight units, freight units > 20 ft and < 40 ft, freight units > 40 ft.
- Ro-Ro mobile units:
a) Mobile self-propelled units: road goods vehicles and accompanying trailers, passenger cars, motorcycles and accompanying trailers/caravans, passenger buses, trade vehicles (including import/export motor vehicles), live animals on the hoof, other mobile self-propelled units.
b) Mobile non-self-propelled units: unaccompanied road goods trailers and semi-trailers, unaccompanied caravans and other road, agricultural and industrial vehicles, rail wagons, shipborne port-to-port trailers and shipborne barges engaged in goods transport, other mobile non-self-propelled units
- Other cargo: forestry products, iron and steel products, other general cargo.
The category 'large container' includes containers having a length of 20 feet or more. Smaller containers are included in the category 'other cargo'. As a general rule, the container figures are limited to lift-on lift-off containers (Lo-Lo).
Transport calculation (Table 1 and Figure 10): In order to estimate maritime transport of goods between ports, the issue of 'double counting', the transport of the same goods being declared by both the port of loading (as outward movements) and the port of unloading (as inward movements) has to be addressed. Generally, when both the port of loading and the port of unloading are situated within the same statistical aggregate, only the incoming flows of goods declared by ports are summed up to determine the total maritime transport within the aggregate ('elimination of double counting'). The algorithm for the elimination of double counting is applied at statistical port level. Thus, the total maritime transport per country excludes the double counting of maritime transport within the country. Similarly, the total maritime transport for the EU excludes the double counting of national and international intra-EU maritime transport (see metadata on the Eurostat website for more information).
Please note that the recording of unknown ports of loading or unloading may have influenced the transport figure calculations, as well as the shares of maritime transport allocated to intra-EU, extra-EU and national maritime transport.
Type of vessel (Figure 17):
- Liquid bulk: oil tanker, chemical tanker, LG tanker, tanker barge, other tanker.
- Dry bulk: bulk/oil carrier, bulk carrier.
- Container: full container.
- Cargo, specialised: barge carrier, chemical carrier, irradiated fuel, livestock carrier, vehicle carrier, other specialised.
- Cargo, non-specialised: reefer, Ro-Ro passenger, Ro-Ro container, other Ro-Ro cargo, combination carrier general cargo/passenger, combination carrier general cargo/container, single-decker, multi-decker.
- Passenger: passenger (excluding cruise passenger vessels).
- Other: cruise ships, offshore supply, dry cargo barges, tugs, miscellaneous, unknown type of vessel.
Special symbols used in the tables
':' not available
'-' not applicable
Context
The content of this statistical article is based on data collected within the framework of the EU maritime transport statistics Directive, i.e. 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 (OJ L141 of 6.6.2009, page 29), which is a recast of the original Council Directive 95/64 (EC) of 8 December 1995.
The basic legal act (Directive 2009/42/EC) was amended by:
- Commission Decision 2010/216/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 April 2010, OJ L 94, 15.4.2010, p. 33-40
- Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010, OJ L 325, 9.12.2010, p. 1-3
- Commission Delegated Decision 2012/186/EU of 3 February 2012 OJ L 101 of 11.4.2012 pp. 5-14.
The following legal acts include respectively the last official version of the list of ports and some dissemination aspects:
- Commission Decision 2001/423/EC of 22 May 2001 (on dissemination) OJ L 151 of 07.06.2001 p. 41
- Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2018/1007 of 25 April 2018 supplementing Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the list of ports and repealing Commission Decision 2008/861/EC (Text with EEA relevance.) OJ L 180, 17.7.2018, p. 29–71
Footnotes
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Transport, see detailed datasets:
- 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 - regional statistics (mar_rg)
Thematic section
Publications
Methodology
- Maritime transport (ESMS metadata file — mar_esms)
- Reference Manual on Maritime Transport Statistics
- Glossary for transport statistics - 5th edition - 2019