Accredited official statistics

Port freight annual statistics 2022: Route information

Published 19 July 2023

You can use our maritime interactive dashboard to explore port freight trends

Port freight trends by route

Total international traffic increased 4% in 2022 to 355.1 million tonnes, but remained 7% lower than 2019, whereas domestic traffic increased by 1% to 94.4 million tonnes, continuing to exceed pre-pandemic levels. Chart 13 displays this trend in a line chart which shows that in 2022 exports increased 2% following a 4 year decline, while imports increased for a second year, up 5% in 2022 to only 4% below pre-pandemic levels. Historically imports are consistently higher but decreased sharply during both the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Chart 13: Major port international freight by direction and domestic freight from 2000 to 2022 (PORT0205)

For information on goods moved on domestic routes go to domestic routes and domestic waterborne freight.

International Freight

Chart 14: International freight tonnage by route, 2022 (PORT0204)

Chart 14 is a bar chart showing tonnage handled by UK ports by international region where the goods were loaded and unloaded. In 2022:

• tonnage with ports in the European Union accounted for 54% of all international tonnage traffic

• other Europe and Mediterranean was the only region to decline from 2021, now 16% less than 2021 traffic

• all America had the largest absolute increase in 2022 and overtook Other Europe and Mediterranean as the second largest region

The cargo group breakdown for short sea and deep sea trade largely follow the national picture, with liquid bulk being the largest category. However, roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic accounts for a larger proportion of short sea traffic, and container (Lo-Lo) traffic accounts for a larger proportion of deep sea traffic.

Short Sea

Definitions

Short Sea: maritime traffic that moves cargo along a coast without having to cross an ocean. This consists of traffic to and from European Union (EU) and ‘Other Europe and Mediterranean’ (Extra-EU) countries.

Short sea traffic saw an overall decline from 2021 of 2%, short sea imports decreased by 6% and exports increased by 6%.

All cargo groups declined on short sea routes in 2022 except for Ro-Ro and liquid bulk. These changes mostly follow the national trend, apart from liquid bulk which increased by less than 1% compared to an all routes increase of 11%. This is driven by a 63% decline in liquid bulk moved to or from Russia. Sanctions on Russian commodities came into effect towards the end of 2022, but according to DESNZ the oil and gas industry saw significant self-sanctioning where traders voluntarily sought alternatives to trading with Russia, therefore the UK did not receive any Russian LNG cargoes from April 2022 onwards.

Short sea container tonnage declined 6% in contrast to deep sea container traffic which increased 4%. The short sea decline in containers was driven by traffic with ports in Belgium, which accounted for 78% of the short sea container traffic decline. This trend is outlined in more detail in the cargo information section.

France accounted for 39% of all short sea Ro-Ro units in 2022. France had the largest increase in Ro-Ro units of all partner short sea countries, increasing 1.2 million units from 2021, which accounted for 61% of the national Ro-Ro increase. Passenger vehicles accounted for the majority of this increase. Despite an increase in passenger vehicles, France saw the largest decline in accompanied roads goods vehicle, of all short sea countries (down 1.4 million tonnes), accounting for almost all of the UK’s accompanied Ro-Ro freight decline. The UK saw an increase in unaccompanied short sea Ro-Ro tonnage traffic, up by 2.2 million tonnes. The Republic of Ireland accounted for the majority of the increase in unaccompanied goods vehicles of all short sea countries.

The shift from accompanied to unaccompanied Ro-Ro is explained in more detail in the cargo information article.

The Netherlands is the second largest route for short sea unitised Ro-Ro traffic (22%) and is also the largest short sea partner for liquid bulk and containers. This makes the Netherlands the top partner country for both inwards and outwards tonnage traffic, handling a total of 60.6 million tonnes, 25% of short sea traffic.

Russia had the largest absolute decline, down 9 million tonnes compared to 2022 (down 63%). Tonnage with Russian ports declined across all cargo groups, with the largest declines in liquid bulk, other cargo general cargo and then dry bulk retrospectively. The second largest decline was traffic with Belgium, down 1.2 million tonnes.

Republic of Ireland had the largest absolute increase of all short sea countries, 3 million tonnes above 2021 (up 21%). This increase was mostly driven by liquid bulk and Ro-Ro. The Republic of Ireland is the third largest route for Ro-Ro, and although tonnage increased 12% in 2022, tonnage remained 11% below 2019 levels. This is likely to be due to changes in haulier behaviour following the introduction of customs requirements as well as the effect of COVID-19 related restrictions.

For more detail on cargo types, go to the cargo information page.

Deep Sea

Definitions

Deep sea: maritime traffic that crosses oceans. This consists of traffic to and from countries in Africa, America, Asia and Australasia. Mediterranean countries are classed under short sea in the port freight series.

Deep sea traffic saw an overall increase of 19% to 113.2 million tonnes, following a decline in the previous year, and is now 6% below 2019. There was a substantial increase in imports (up 31%) whereas exported traffic declined (down 12%). This goes against the national trend which saw an increase in both inwards and outwards traffic (5% and 1% respectively).

On deep sea routes, all cargo types increased in 2022 apart from other general cargo. However, the increase was driven mostly by liquid bulk, which increased 15 million tonnes, and Liquefied Natural Gas imports (LNG) in particular. For more details on LNG go to the cargo information page.

The USA was the country handling the most liquid bulk to and from the UK with 28.9 million tonnes in 2022, accounting for 54% of liquid bulk handled on deep sea routes (and 16% of all liquid bulk handled). Liquid bulk from the USA increased 52% in 2022, and while all categories of liquid bulk increased, this was driven mostly by LNG. Qatar had previously been the largest exporter of LNG to the UK, but the USA overtook this in 2022 following new liquefaction capacity that increased their export capacity (DESNZ energy trends collection).

Given the long distances involved in deep sea traffic, it consists of a higher proportion of containers (26% compared to 14% for the UK national total) and the proportion of Ro-Ro traffic on these routes is very small (2%).

Deep sea container tonnage increased 1.2 million tonnes (4%) in 2022, in contrast to the national trend which decreased 1.6 million tonnes (down 3%). This increase in deep sea and decline in short sea container tonnage is discussed further in the containers section of the cargo information page. China, Oman and India saw the greatest absolute increases in container tonnage traffic.

Container units for deep sea overall decreased by 5% similar to the national trend (down 7%). China drove this trend, accounting for just under half of deep sea containers and just under a quarter of all containers handled at UK ports.

Cargo being carried in and out of the UK to deep sea countries has increased in tonnage but has declined in units, this could be due to more cargo being carried per container or due to less empty containers.

Background Information

The tables give further detail of the key results presented in this statistical release. They are available from port and domestic waterborne freight statistics.

These notes provide further information such as definitions and a list of UK ports is available in the accompanying table index. The background quality report provides further information on how the data is collected, quality assured and comparisons with relevant data sources.

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