Key figures on Europe - 2025 edition, published in July, provides an overview of recent developments in the EU, covering topics from people and society to economy, business, environment, and natural resources. Today, the focus is on the transport sector, highlighting the busiest short sea shipping ports in the EU. Short sea shipping is the maritime transport of goods over relatively short distances, namely between ports in the EU (sometimes candidate countries and EFTA countries), and ports situated in geographical Europe, on the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
© eurostat
In 2023, the total weight of goods transported to/from main ports in the EU by short sea shipping was 1.6 billion tons; this was equivalent to a decrease of 5.4% when compared with 2022. Rotterdam in the Netherlands was by far the busiest EU port in terms of goods transported (159 million tons; 9.9% of the EU total). The second busiest port was the port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium (119 million tons), which was almost twice as busy as the next port, Gdańsk in Poland (61 million tons).
To view the full report, click here.
For more information:
Balazs UJVARI
Eurostat
Tel: +32 2 29 54578
Email: [email protected]
www.ec.europa.eu