What EU country handled the most maritime freight in 2023?

The Netherlands handled the most maritime freight of all European Union countries last year, with 545 million tonnes of freight handled by its ports.

Other countries to report a sizeable quantity of maritime freight last year included Italy (501 million tonnes) and Spain (472 million tonnes), however each of the top three countries recorded a decrease in freight handled last year, by 7.6%, 1.7% and 3.7%, respectively, the Eurostat data showed.

Overall, in 2023, EU sea ports handled around 3.4 billion tonnes of freight (total gross weight), with the volume of freight decreasing by 3.9% compared to the previous year. Compared to 2013, however, freight tonnage was up 5.0%.

Goods handled

The largest quantity of goods handled by the main EU ports consisted of coal, lignite, crude petroleum, and natural gas, accounting for 21.0% of the total freight.

This was followed by coke and petroleum products, which comprised 16.1% of freight handled, and metal ores along with other mining and quarrying products, which represented 7.2%. Products related to agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fisheries contributed 6.8%, while chemicals, rubber, plastics, and nuclear fuel accounted for 6.4%.

Lastly, food products, beverages, and tobacco made up 4.7% of the total volume of goods handled by EU ports.

Decrease in volume

Among the 22 EU countries for which data was available, 17 recorded a decrease in freight volume in 2023 compared to the previous year.

The largest drops were seen in Estonia (-31.0%), Latvia (-21.5%), and Finland (-9.0%). Read more here.

Maritime freight handled in 2023, by EU country (in thousands of tonnes)

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