Attached please find the EUROSTAT Data in Focus 20/2009 publication on Maritime transport of goods and passengers 1997-2007. The data are running up to end 2007 only and are not absolutely up to date, but they are complete and still offer an interesting picture.
· EU ports handled about 4 billion tonnes of goods in 2007: nearly 8 tonnes per inhabitant.
· In 2007, more than 3.9 billion tonnes of goods were handled in the EU-27 maritime ports (2.5% up compared to 2006). Of these, 64% were goods unloaded (“inwards”). Almost all Member States unloaded more than they loaded. At 582 million tonnes, the United Kingdom had the highest share (15%) of goods handled in EU-27 ports, followed by Italy (14%), the Netherlands (13%) and Spain (11%).
· In most countries in 2007, liquid bulk goods (which include petroleum products) was the largest type of cargo handled in tonnage terms. At EU-27 level, liquid bulk represents 39% of the total cargo handled in ports, followed by dry bulk (25%) and containers (18%).
· Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg maintained their positions as the three largest ports in terms of both gross weight of goods and volume of containers handled.
· In 2007, more than 60% of EU-27 seaborne goods transport concerned an extra-EU partner port. The international intra-EU-27 transport represented
less than 30% and national transport about 10%. However the situation varies widely among countries. This may, first instance look a bit contradictory to earlier EUROSTAT reports revealing that Short Sea Shipping represents about two thirds of total port activity. It is recalled though, that the Short Sea Shipping aggregate includes the partner ports situated in geographical Europe, on the Mediterranean and Black seas. “Ocean shipping” is the complementary geographical aggregate.
In 2007, there were five Italian, three Greek and three Spanish ports amongst the top 20 passenger ports. Denmark and Sweden had two ports each in the top 20, and Germany, Estonia, France, Finland and the United Kingdom are represented by one port each.
