The total gross weight of goods handled in EU ports is estimated at 3.7 billion tonnes in 2012, a decrease of 1.0 % compared with 2011. After a period of continued year-on-year increases in the volume of goods handled in EU ports from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2012, the apparent recovery in EU port activity came to an end in the second quarter of 2012 (Figure 1). With consecutive year-on-year decreases in the three last quarters of 2012, the overall port activity in the EU was slightly lower in 2012 than the level recorded 7 years earlier, in 2005.

The Netherlands remained the largest maritime freight transport country in Europe in 2012, while Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg maintained their positions as the three largest EU ports. The 20 largest ports accounted for 37 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in the countries reporting data in 2012. The port of Rotterdam on its own accounted for about 9 % of the total.

The number of passengers passing through EU ports is estimated at 398 million in 2012, a decrease of 3.5 % compared with 2011. This fall in EU passenger transport is mainly caused by reductions in the numbers of passengers embarking and disembarking in Italy and Greece, the two leading EU countries for seaborne passenger transport.

The Netherlands largest maritime freight transport country in the EU
The Netherlands has remained the largest maritime freight transport country in Europe since 2010. At 543 million tonnes, the volume of seaborne goods handled in Dutch ports in 2012 represented 14.6 % of the EU-28 total. The Netherlands was followed by the United Kingdom (UK) and Italy, with shares of 13.4 % and 12.8 %, respectively. Spain remained the fourth largest and France the fifth largest EU maritime freight transport country in 2012. Ports in the candidate country Turkey handled 375 million tonnes of goods in 2012, placing it between Spain and France in terms of total volume of seaborne goods.

Compared with 2011, the largest increases in port activity were recorded in Spain (13.1 %) and Latvia (8.5 %), while the largest decreases in port activity were recorded in Croatia (-13.2 %), Estonia (-10.3 %) and Finland (-8.9 %). Inward movement of goods to the EU-28 countries decreased by 2.3 % in 2012 and accounted for about 61 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in EU-28 ports. Much of this inward tonnage is made up of considerable inward volumes of liquid bulk goods, such as crude oil and oil products.

In general, more seaborne goods are unloaded than loaded in the majority of EU countries. Cyprus had the highest share of total tonnage unloaded in 2012, followed by Malta and the Netherlands. However, for Romania and Bulgaria (agricultural products), the three Baltic countries (oil products) and the EEA country Norway (crude oil), outward movement of goods prevailed.

Liquid bulk accounted for 39 % of total tonnage handled in EU ports
Liquid bulk goods accounted for 39 % of the total tonnage of cargo handled in the main EU-28 ports in 2012, followed by dry bulk goods, containerised goods and Ro-Ro mobile units. The largest tonnage of liquid bulk goods was handled in Dutch ports (274 million tonnes), followed by the UK (211 million tonnes) and Italy (196 million tonnes). Estonia recorded the highest share of liquid bulk goods as a percentage of the total tonnage handled in its main ports (65 %), reflecting large volumes of outward movements of oil products from Russia. Dutch ports’ handling of dry bulk goods was by far the largest in the EU in 2012 (131 million tonnes), but lower than the candidate country Turkey (148 million tonnes).

Container transport was the dominant type of cargo in Germany (44 %) and Belgium (42 %), but the largest volumes of goods in containers were handled in Spain (133 million tonnes) and Germany (128 million tonnes). The share of Ro-Ro units in the total tonnage of goods was highest for Denmark and Sweden (28 % and 27 %, respectively). However, in tonnage terms, the United Kingdom (94 million tonnes) and Italy (86 million tonnes) had the largest quantities of goods transported on Ro-Ro mobile units in 2012.

Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg stay as top ports
Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Hamburg, all located on the North Sea coast, consolidated their positions as Europe's top three ports in 2012, both for the gross weight of goods (Table 3) and the volume of containers handled.

As in 2011, the 20 largest ports accounted for about 37 % of the total tonnage of goods handled in the countries reporting data in 2012 (EU-28, Norway, Turkey and Montenegro). Rotterdam on its own accounted for just above 9 % of the total port activity in 2012. However, Europe’s largest port saw an overall fall of 0.2 % in the gross weight of goods handled from 2011 to 2012, despite a 9 % increase in the volumes of liquid bulk goods. Most of the cargo handling in Rotterdam involves liquid bulk goods such as oil and chemicals and dry bulk goods such as coal and ores.

Among the other top cargo ports, Antwerpen and Hamburg also reported falls in the total volume of goods handled in 2012 (of -2.4 % and -0.7 %, respectively). In contrast, Aliaga in Turkey reported the largest growth in gross weight of goods handled (+13.2 %), followed by Izmit also in Turkey (+10.2 %) and Algeciras in Spain (+8.5 %). The UK ports of Milford Haven and London both reported substantial decreases in port activity in 2012 (-18.2 % and -10.4 %, respectively), mainly due to reduced tonnages of liquid bulk goods.

Rotterdam is also Europe’s largest container port, handling almost 11 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2012, a fall of 3.5 % compared with 2011 (Table 4). The port of Hamburg handled almost 9 million TEUs in 2012, keeping its position as the second largest container port in Europe measured by the number of containers. After a recovery in recent years, the port of Piraeus in Greece continued to report a significant increase in the volume of containers in 2012.

The most specialised of the top 20 cargo ports are Milford Haven in the UK, Bergen in Norway and Botas in Turkey (mostly liquid bulk goods), as well as Bremerhaven in Germany (mostly containers). While inward activity is prevalent in most of the top 20 ports, the ports of Bergen and Botas both handle substantial outward movements of crude oil. Bremerhaven and the Spanish port of Valencia also handle slightly more outwards movements of containerised goods than inwards movements.

Nine of the top 20 ports in 2012 are located on the North Sea coast, with eight in the Mediterranean (Map 1). The remaining three are located on the Atlantic coast, with two in the Channel. The composition of its port infrastructure will sometimes determine if a country is represented on the top 20 list of cargo ports or not. Denmark and Greece, for instance, are two countries with a high number of medium size ports. However, there are no ports in either of these two countries above the 40 million tonnes threshold required to make the top 20 list.

More maritime freight transport with extra-EU partners
Unlike statistics presented earlier in this article, the figures do not present the total handling of goods in ports (inwards movements plus outwards movements), but estimate the seaborne transport of goods between main ports and their partner ports (see data sources and availability).

In total, EU seaborne transport decreased by 0.1 % from 2011 to 2012. However, within this slight decrease at the total level there were substantial structural variations. While international intra-EU transport and national seaborne transport fell from 2011 to 2012 (by -1.4 % and -6.6 %, respectively), international extra-EU seaborne transport increased by 1.4 %. All in all, 64 % of the EU-28 seaborne goods were transported to or from ports outside the EU in 2012, making maritime transport by far the most important mode for long distance transport of goods to or from the EU, in tonnage terms.

In countries with a geography characterised by long shorelines or a large number of islands, like Greece, Italy, Denmark and Norway, the share of national seaborne transport is naturally high (20-30 %). Countries, like Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Finland and Sweden, on the other hand, have the highest shares of international intra-EU transport (more than 65 %), because their main maritime freight transport partners are found within the EU. Other countries, like Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and the Netherlands, have high shares of extra-EU transport (above 70 %), based either on their geographical position or the "deep sea" nature of the transport activities prevailing in their main ports.

Map 2 illustrates the eight largest maritime transport flows to or from the EU. As shown in the map, all of the top eight transport flows in 2012 were inward flows of goods, from the Baltic Sea region of Russia, Brazil, the East Coast of the United States of America (USA), Norway, the Black Sea region of Russia, Egypt, China and Turkey, respectively. In comparison, the ninth largest seaborne transport flow in 2012 was the outwards flow of goods from the EU to the East Coast of the United States of America.

Continuing decline in seaborne passenger transport
Seaborne transport of passengers in Europe continued its decline in 2012 (Table 6). The total number of passengers passing through EU-28 ports in 2012 is estimated at 398 million (inwards movements plus outwards movements), a drop of 3.5 % compared to the previous year.

Unlike goods movements (where broadly 60 % of goods are unloaded and 40 % loaded), the difference between the numbers of passengers disembarking ("inwards") and embarking ("outwards") in European ports is small. This reflects the fact that seaborne passenger transport in Europe is mainly carried by national or intra-EU ferry connections, with the same passengers counted twice in the statistics (when they embark and when they disembark).
Close to 77 million passengers were embarked and disembarked in Italian ports in 2012, confirming Italy as the leading seaborne passenger transport country in Europe. Italy was followed by Greece, with 73 million passengers. However, both the main maritime passenger countries recorded significant decreases in the number of passengers passing through their ports in 2012 (-6.3 % and -7.3 %, respectively).

While cruise passengers represented only 3.6 % of the total number of passengers in EU-28 ports in 2012, they are important to the ports they visit. The five countries Italy, Spain, the UK, Germany and Greece accounted for more than 85 % of the total cruise passengers reported.

The top 20 passenger ports accounted for about 38 % of the total number of passengers embarking and disembarking in the countries reporting data in 2012 (Table 7), a slight increase from 2011. Dover in the UK, situated on the Channel, remained the largest passenger port in Europe in 2012, despite a decrease of 6.5% in the number of seaborne passengers passing through the port facilities. The Spanish port of Algeciras recorded the largest increase in number of passengers in 2012 (+7.7 %), while the Greek port of Piraeus recorded the largest decrease compared with the previous year (-13.7 %).

The figures show that some ports have experienced quite substantial decreases in the number of seaborne passengers over time. These changes are typically caused by openings of new bridge connections and subsequent closure of ferry links. For example, the number of passengers using the cross Channel ferries has been affected by increased use of the Channel tunnel and rapid growth in low cost flights.

Italy and Greece leading in maritime passenger transport
Table 8 shows the breakdown of seaborne passenger transport (excluding cruise passengers) between national, international intra-EU and international extra-EU transport for each reporting country. These figures do not reflect the total embarkation and disembarkation of passengers in ports, but estimate the transport of passengers between ports (see also data sources and availability).

Seaborne passenger transport with the main EU-28 ports decreased by 3.9 % in 2012, compared with the previous year. This sustained the fall in European maritime transport of passengers apparent in recent years and has mainly reflected the decreased transport of passengers to or from ports in a number of the largest maritime passenger transport countries, such as Italy, Greece, the UK and France.

The number of seaborne passengers transported to or from the main ports of Italy fell by 8.2 % to about 38 million passengers in 2012, while the volume of seaborne passenger transport with Greek ports fell by 8.6 % to about 36 million passengers. France, the UK and several other countries also reported significant decreases in maritime transport of passengers in 2012, while only six countries recorded increases compared to 2011. The most noticeable increase was reported by Estonia (+4.6 % to 11 million passengers).

Almost 60 % of the seaborne passenger transport in the EU countries is carried out between national ports. In general, countries with busy ferry connections and well-populated islands tend to have both a large volume of maritime passenger transport and a high share of national passenger transport by sea. This applies to the two leading maritime passenger transport countries, Italy and Greece, as well as countries like Malta, Portugal and Croatia.

On the other hand, countries with major regular ferry connections to other EU countries, like Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Finland and the UK, naturally have high shares of international intra-EU transport. As in previous years, Spain and Denmark recorded the highest shares of extra-EU passenger transport in 2012. This is mainly due to the geographical position of the countries, with Spain having links with Morocco and Denmark with Norway.

Larger vessels calling in the main EU ports
The number of vessel calls in the main EU-28 ports (excluding French ports) was just below 2.2 million in 2012, decreasing by 3.5 % compared to 2011 (Table 9). With the corresponding gross vessel tonnage (GT) falling by 3.0 %, the trend towards a slightly larger average size of vessels making port calls in recent years continued. The average size of vessels calling in EU ports in 2012 was just below 6 800 GT.
Source: Eurostat