Port freight annual statistics: 2020
Annual statistics on the UK port freight traffic for 2020.
Documents
Details
2019 statistics were revised in the 2020 publication, published in July 2021, due to volumes submitted for some ports being incorrectly inputted by the data provider. This affects data for 3 major ports, see notes and definitions for more details.
Explore our interactive dashboard.
Total tonnage levels for all UK ports decreased 9% in 2020, compared to 2019, to 438.9 million tonnes handled.
For UK major ports in 2020:
- the UK continues to import more than it exports
- a total of 224.3 million tonnes were imported, compared to 119.0 million tonnes exported
- more goods were moved between UK major ports and the EU than any other region
- the Netherlands continues to be the UK’s largest tonnage trading partner, accounting for 30% of all EU traffic, and 17% of international traffic
- all cargo groups declined, where the cargo groups other general cargo, dry and liquid bulk are at their lowest levels since 2000
- unitised traffic declined at all ports
- passenger vehicles declined by 4.2 million units
- London handled the most tonnage for the second consecutive year
Domestic waterborne freight statistics
Minor revisions were made which are flagged appropriately in the associated tables (revised to correct a minor table error which affected the internal traffic figure for goods lifted only). This publication was postponed but going forward domestic waterborne freight statistics will go back to being published with the annual port freight publication.
Compared to 2019:
- the total amount of goods moved by water within the UK decreased by 2% to 24.7 billion tonne-kilometres (bt-k) in 2020
- goods lifted traffic also decreased, by 11%, to 86.8 million tonnes, the lowest level since the series began in 2000
- goods lifted on inland waters saw the largest decrease of 17% to 41.8 million tonnes
- goods moved on inland waters also saw the largest decrease of 21% to 1.3 billion tonne-kilometres
- liquid bulk remained the most transported cargo type, at 11.4 billion tonne-kilometres being moved
- dry bulk remained the second most transported type of cargo, with figures remaining stable at 8 billion tonne-kilometres being moved
- the Thames handled the most domestic traffic in the UK, accounting for over half (58%) of all goods moved by inland waterway in 2020
Please fill in our 2-minute user feedback survey, which aims to make maritime statistics better, more informative and more user friendly.
Contact us
Maritime and shipping statistics
Email maritime.stats@dft.gov.uk
Media enquiries 0300 7777 878
Updates to this page
Published 14 July 2021Last updated 8 September 2021 + show all updates
-
Domestic waterborne freight statistics for 2020 published.
-
First published.