Accredited official statistics

Port freight annual statistics 2023: Domestic information and domestic waterborne freight

Published 17 July 2024

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

These are accredited official statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in December 2018. For more information, see the About these statistics section.

Domestic routes

Definitions

Coastwise: traffic carried around the coast from one UK port to another, including domestic ferry services. Figures are double-counted in the port freight data for this type of traffic. For example, data of a shipment from Liverpool to Belfast is collected from both Liverpool’s and Belfast’s perspectives (one being an inward, the other record being an outward voyage).

One-Port: traffic to and from offshore locations such as oil rigs and sea dredging.

Main freight units: a subset of unitised goods are main freight units – this group consists of all containers and those roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) units which are designed to carry freight (categories 51, 61 and 63 in the cargo categorisation flowchart). The purpose of the main freight unit classification is that it excludes those Ro-Ro units which are not freight carrying – such as passenger vehicles, trade vehicles, and other specialised vehicles and trailers.

Trends in tonnage traffic

Tonnage carried on domestic routes continues to account for 22% of all traffic handled by UK major ports, totalling 91.9 million tonnes in 2023. This proportion has been similar since 2012. Domestic tonnage declined by 3% compared to 2022, with coastwise traffic making up 83% of domestic tonnage in 2023. Chart 16 is a line chart showing the trend in domestic traffic by coastwise and one-port over time. From 2005 to 2017, coastwise traffic broadly declined, mainly because of a fall in liquid bulk traffic, but from 2017 to 2023, the trend has remained relatively level (PORT0706). One-port traffic levels are lower and have broadly declined over time.

Chart 16: Domestic traffic by type from 2000 to 2023 (PORT0499)

All cargo groups declined for domestic traffic in 2023 from 2022, except for roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic which remained unchanged.

Domestic container traffic saw a decrease of 31% between 2022 and 2023, continuing a long-term trend which has seen it fall 73% since the peak in 2015. This contrasts with the relatively flat trend seen in international container traffic during the same period. The drop in container traffic for latest year is driven by declines across most ports handling domestic container traffic.

Liquid bulk had the largest absolute decline of all domestic traffic, down 1.4 million tonnes in 2023 from 2022 (-4%). Liquid bulk alone accounted for just over half of the total decline in domestic traffic in 2023. The decline in domestic liquid bulk was driven mostly by crude oil and oil products. While international traffic also saw the largest declines in liquid bulk, this decline was driven by imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), followed by crude oil.

Dry bulk declined by 2% but this was mainly driven by coal declining by 64% from 2022 to 2023. International traffic also saw the largest declines in coal of any dry bulk category.

For more detail on trends by cargo type, go to the cargo information page.

In 2023, Belfast remained the UK port that handles the most domestic traffic (12.2 million tonnes). This is shown in Chart 17, a stacked bar chart of the 10 ports handling the most domestic traffic split by one-port and coastwise. London was the second largest domestic port, and handled the most one-port traffic. London alone accounts for 45%  of all domestic one port traffic.

Chart 17: Top 10 UK major ports by domestic tonnage in 2023 (PORT0499)

Coastwise

In 2023, 76.0 million tonnes of domestic traffic was coastwise,  a decrease of 1% compared with 2022. The coastwise decrease of 1.1 million tonnes in 2023 was largely driven by a 1.1 million tonne decline in liquid bulk. Dry bulk traffic saw an increase in coastwise routes, despite an overall domestic decline. Coastwise movements of coal still declined from 2022 (-64%) but an increase in other dry bulk (+7%) led to an overall dry bulk increase.

Coastwise Ro-Ro traffic remained unchanged in 2023 from 2022 at 29.6 million  tonnes. Despite no change in overall Ro-Ro in 2023, unaccompanied roads goods vehicles declined 0.5 million tonnes (down 2% from 2022), whereas roads goods vehicles increased by 0.4 million tonnes (up 5% from 2022). Larne and Cairnryan saw the largest increases in Ro-Ro, driven by increases in unaccompanied goods vehicles, followed by accompanied road goods vehicles. Liverpool saw the largest decline in Ro-Ro, driven by a decline in unaccompanied road goods vehicles, down 23%  from 2022.

Belfast remained the most used port by tonnage, handling 12.1 million tonnes of domestic traffic in 2023, with Tees and Hartlepool (6.4 million tonnes) overtaking Liverpool as the port with second highest volumes.

One port

One-port tonnage decreased 8% in 2023 to 15.9 million tonnes. One-port tonnage consists of traffic to and from offshore locations, including sea dredging and oil rigs. Crude oil one-port tonnage has declined considerably since 2000. The reduction in North Sea oil and gas production is likely to have been a contributory factor. The decline in one-port tonnage in 2023 was primarily driven by a decrease of 0.9 million tonnes in other dry bulk from dredging. The largest fall was at London where other dry bulk fell by 8% (0.6 million tonnes).

Trends in unitised traffic

Domestic unitised traffic decreased by 1% in 2023 compared with 2022. Unitised Ro-Ro traffic remained unchanged from 2022 at 3.6 million units. Despite no overall change, the largest category of passenger cars and motorcycles decreased by 4% from 2022. All other categories of self propelled Ro-Ro increased from 2022 to 2023, noticeably import and export of motor vehicles increased by 88% (53,000  units). Container units, however, decreased by 24% to the lowest level since 2000, reflecting the tonnage trend for container traffic.

Main freight unitised traffic, which consists of all container and Ro-Ro units which can carry freight, decreased by 2%  in 2023 from 2022 (38,000 units). In the same year, main freight traffic to the Republic of Ireland (ROI) deceased by 48,000 units (-6%). According to the Irish Maritime Development Office, one of the factors behind this decline between Great Britain and Republic of Ireland (ROI) was the ending of the P&O service between Dublin and Liverpool, which was announced in August 2023. Coastwise routes saw a decline in unaccompanied (-2%) but an increase in accompanied (+5%). Irish republic routes saw a 7% decline in unaccompanied but just a 1% increase in accompanied, reflecting the ROI decline.

This trend of main freight units on domestic coastwise routes and routes with the Republic of Ireland is displayed in Chart 18.

Chart 18: Main freight units handled on Irish republic and domestic coastwise routes, 2000 to 2023 (PORT0499)

Domestic waterborne freight

About domestic waterborne freight

Domestic waterborne freight covers freight moved by water in the UK and includes traffic on inland waterways in addition to coastwise and one-port traffic. These are based on analysis of the port freight statistics and inland waterway movements collected from barge operators and minor ports. In contrast to the domestic figures above, coastwise traffic between 2 ports is only counted in 1 direction, and international traffic which travels on inland waters is included. Figures in this section are not directly comparable to the rest of port freight statistics.

For further information regarding the figures in this section, see the domestic waterborne freight technical note. Data tables for domestic waterborne freight can be found in the PORT07 section.

Definitions

Inland waterways traffic is movement of freight on a ship or barge along one of British inland waterways, such as rivers or canals. Where coastwise or one-port traffic is handled by a port classified as being on inland waters (for example, on a river) this is also included in the inland waters within this section.

Goods moved is a metric used for freight traffic. It is the tonnage of goods lifted multiplied by the distance travelled, expressed as tonne-kilometres. For foreign traffic, distance is counted to the smooth water boundary only.

Water transport accounts for a relatively small share of domestic goods moved across all modes (where road dominates), around 12% of goods moved and 5% of goods lifted, based on data for 2022 published in Transport Statistics Great Britain (TSGB0401).

Charts 19 and 20 show goods lifted and goods moved for domestic traffic, including one port, coastwise and inland waterways traffic from 2001 to 2023. The total amount of goods lifted by water within the UK decreased by 3% to 90.9 million tonnes in 2023 from 2022. Goods moved traffic decreased by 5%, to 23.8 billion tonne-kilometres (bt-k) from 2022 to 2023 – this decrease was driven by a decline in one-port goods moved traffic (-9%), and a decline in coastwise goods moved traffic (-4%).

Chart 19: Domestic waterborne freight goods lifted from 2001 to 2023 (PORT0701)

Chart 20: Domestic waterborne freight goods moved from 2001 to 2023 (PORT0701)

Chart Note: Coastwise and one-port traffic which travels on inland waterways is counted twice in the above figures (so total goods lifted is less than the sum of the 3 individual categories).

Chart 21 is a bar chart of goods moved in 2023 by cargo type. In terms of goods moved, liquid bulk traffic remains the most transported cargo type along domestic waterborne routes (42%)  in 2023, followed by dry bulk (37%), consistent with the previous year trends. Despite the declining trend in liquid bulk since 2000 associated with the decline in North Sea oil, the majority of the liquid bulk cargo continues to come from crude oil and oil products. In 2023, unitised traffic (Ro-Ro and container) accounted for 13%  of all tonne-kilometres, accounting for the same proportion of domestic goods moved as last year.

Chart 21: Domestic waterborne freight goods moved by cargo type, 2023 (PORT0702)

Inland waters traffic overall accounts for 5% of domestic waterborne freight traffic measured by goods moved. This traffic can be carried by barges or seagoing vessels on inland waterways. Chart 22 is a map of the navigable waterways alongside tonnage moved. The Thames handled the most domestic traffic in the UK, accounting for over half (60%) of all goods moved by inland waterway in 2023 (PORT0705). In terms of goods lifted, the River Thames handled 23.6 million tonnes of freight, 53% of all total traffic on UK waterways (PORT0704), just 1% less than in 2022.

Chart 22: Map of domestic waterborne freight goods moved by waterway, 2023 (PORT0705)

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.

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found on the pre-release access list.

Related data sources

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes data on tonnage and value to a much more granular commodity level for goods traded internationally. Comparisons between port freight and this source, specifically for certain cargo categories, are explored further in our notes and definitions.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) publish the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) which covers the production and consumption of fuels and energy in the UK.

Information on freight moved by different modes, including a breakdown of domestic freight is available in Transport Statistics Great Britain.

Eurostat publish comparative port freight data for European Union countries, which can be used to compare UK ports to those in EU countries.

About these statistics

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in December 2018. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

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