Accredited official statistics

Port freight annual statistics 2023: International route information

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.

Port freight trends by route

Total international traffic (imports and exports combined) decreased 6% in 2023 (compared to 2022) down to 333.9 million tonnes, with domestic traffic decreasing by 3% down to 91.9 million tonnes. Chart 12 displays this trend in a line chart which shows that in 2023 international exports decreased 8% from 2022, continuing the general downwards trend seen from 2000. International imports decreased by 5% in 2023 from 2022, following increase in the previous 2 years during recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically imports are consistently higher than exports, but decreased sharply during both the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Chart 12: Major port international freight by direction and domestic freight from 2000 to 2023 (PORT0205)

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

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.

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.

Transshipment: these statistics collect the port of loading or unloading of the cargo, which may not be the port of ultimate origin or destination. For example, if a ship carrying cargo from Asia unloads/loads the cargo at a European port which is then put on another ship to the UK, our statistics will state the port of load as the European port, rather than the port in Asia.

International freight

Chart 13 is a bar chart showing tonnage handled by UK ports by international region where the goods were loaded and unloaded. In 2023:

• short sea trade accounted for 67% of international UK tonnage traffic (compared to 33% for deep-sea routes)
• tonnage with ports in the European Union accounted for 53% of all international tonnage traffic
• all European Union routes had the largest absolute decline of 12.5 million tonnes from 2022 (down 7%), but remained the largest region
• there were also declines in international routes traffic from 2022 from All America (-3%), Other Europe and Mediterranean (-12%), Asia (-2%) and Australasia (-27%), but All Africa increased by 9%

Chart 13: International freight tonnage by route, 2023 (PORT0204)

Charts 14 and 15 show trends in short sea and deep sea tonnage over the last decade. Overall, short sea tonnage traffic declined by 8% in 2023, down 18.7 million tonnes total (imports and exports) from 2022. Total deep sea traffic decreased by 2% in 2023 from 2022, down 2.5 million tonnes. By contrast, unitised traffic increased on both short sea routes (up 4%, 555,000 units) and deep sea routes (up 1%, 34,000 units) from 2022 to 2023.

Charts 14 and 15: International deep and long sea tonnage and unitised traffic from 2013 to 2023 (PORT0204)

Overall, the cargo group breakdown for short sea and deep sea trade largely follow the national picture, with liquid bulk being the largest category, accounting for 37% of total tonnage short sea traffic in 2023 and 48% of total deep tonnage sea traffic. However, roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic accounts for the second largest proportion of short sea tonnage traffic (29% in 2023), whereas container (Lo-Lo) traffic accounts for the second largest proportion of deep sea tonnage traffic (29% in 2023).

Short sea imports have shown different trends across tonnage and unitised traffic over the last few years. The decline in short sea imports was driven by a decline in liquid bulk, dry bulk and container traffic in both 2022 and 2023. Ro-Ro tonnage also saw a decline in 2023, which was driven by a decrease in unaccompanied road goods vehicles imported from short sea countries. Unitised short sea imports in 2022 was almost solely driven by an increase in passenger vehicles, whereas the increase seen in 2023 was jointly driven by an increase in import/export vehicles and passenger vehicles.

Short sea

Short sea tonnage traffic

In 2023, short sea traffic saw an overall decline from 2022 of 8% (-18.7 million tonnes), with imports and exports both declining by 8%.

All cargo groups declined on short sea routes in 2023, largely following overall national trends across all routes. From 2022 to 2023, liquid bulk declined by 10% on short sea routes, (compared to 6% on all routes) and Lo-Lo container traffic declined by 9% on short sea routes (compared to 1% on all routes). More information on the decline in liquid bulk can be found in the cargo information section.

The Netherlands is the UK’s top partner country for both inwards and outwards short sea tonnage traffic, handling a total of 57.5 million tonnes (26%) of all short sea traffic in 2023. In particular, the UK handles the most liquid bulk and container shipments from the Netherlands of any short sea partner country. Despite this, the Netherlands saw the largest absolute decline of any EU short sea countries (down 3.2 million tonnes from 2022 to 2023), largely driven by liquid bulk declines of crude oil and oil products. The Netherlands contains large transshipment ports so not all of the freight will have an ultimate origin or destination in the Netherlands.

Russia had the largest absolute tonnage decline of all short sea countries, down 4.9 million tonnes from 2022 to 2023. The majority of this decline was made up of liquid bulk, following ban on imports of Russian oil at the end of 2022 (DESNZ Energy Trends).

Traffic between UK and Irish Republic also saw a substantial decline (down 12% from 2022 to 2023  ), largely driven by a decline in unaccompanied road goods vehicles. Of all UK ports, Liverpool saw the largest decline of any UK port for traffic with Irish Republic, primarily because of a decline in unaccompanied road goods vehicles on this route. In August 2023, P&O Ferries announced they would be closing the Liverpool-Dublin ferry route, which may explain the decline in traffic from Liverpool to Irish Republic.

Short sea unitised traffic

Despite a decline in short sea tonnage traffic, unitised traffic on short sea routes increased by 4% from 2022 to 13.5 million units in 2023. This increase in short sea units was driven by Ro-Ro traffic. The majority of this increase was made up by passenger vehicles (up 15%from 2022 to 2023) and import/export motor vehicles (up 23%).  By contrast, short sea container units were down 13%, with the decline spread across different EU countries.

France was the UK’s largest short sea partner country for unitised traffic, accounting for 36% of all short sea units in 2023. Moreover, France accounts for the majority of all passenger vehicle short sea route traffic (66% in 2023). France saw the largest absolute increase of any short sea partner country, up 549,000 units (13%) in 2023 from 2022, primarily driven by increases in passenger vehicle traffic. Of all unitised traffic with France, 79% of this was moved through Dover, followed by Portsmouth (11%). More information on passengers can be found in our sea passenger statistics.

The Netherlands accounted for second largest proportion (21%) of all short sea unitised traffic in 2023. The Netherlands also followed France with the second largest increase in short sea units in 2023, with a 76,000 units (3%) increase from 2022. The increase for the Netherlands short sea unitised traffic was largely driven by imports/export vehicles, which increased 46% in 2023 from 2022 .

Deep sea

Deep sea tonnage traffic

Deep sea traffic saw an overall decline of 2% to 110.6 million tonnes from 2022 to 2023, following a 19% increase in the previous year. There was a decline across both imports and exports, with imports down by 1 million tonnes (-1%) and exports down 1.5 million tonnes (-7%). All cargo groups followed the overall trends seen across all routes, whereby tonnage of all deep sea cargo types declined apart from containers which saw a 2.4 million (8%) increase (this was primarily driven by increased traffic with China and Singapore). Dry bulk had the largest absolute decline of 4.2 million tonnes (-17%), driven more so by imports.

Overall, USA accounted for the largest proportion of UK deep sea tonnage traffic (37% in 2023), followed by China (11%). In 2023, USA was the UK’s biggest partner country for liquid bulk (accounting for 55% of liquid bulk on all deep routes) and dry bulk (accounting for 38% dry bulk on all deep routes). Despite this, USA had the second largest decline (-0.8 million tonnes) in dry bulk of all deep sea countries from 2022 to 2023 (the absolute largest dry bulk decline was from Canada down 1.4 million).  

Qatar had the largest absolute overall decline of any deep sea partner country, down 3.2 million tonnes (-66%) from 2022 to 2023, driven by a substantial decline in liquefied natural gas. More information on the decline in dry and liquid bulks can be found in the cargo information section.

Deep sea unitised traffic

Overall deep sea unitised Lo-Lo container traffic increased by 2% in 2023, following a similar pattern to tonnage amounts with both imports and exports increasing slightly. China and Singapore accounting for the majority of both the container traffic on deep sea routes and the increases seen in 2023.

Deep sea Ro-Ro unitised traffic declined by 4% in 2023, primarily driven by a decline in import and export vehicles which were down 5% from 2022 on deep sea routes. Noticeably, import/export vehicles saw a 17% increase on short sea routes in 2023, suggesting a shift from in trade of import/export vehicles from deep sea regions to short sea regions. The increase in short sea imports and exports of vehicles was greater than the decrease in deep sea imports and exports resulting in an overall increase in vehicles handled by UK ports.

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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