Accredited official statistics

Port freight annual statistics 2024: International Route information

Updated 17 December 2025

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) increased by less than 1% in 2024 to 334.5 million tonnes. Domestic traffic decreased by 6% to 86.1 million tonnes. Chart 12  displays this trend in a line chart which shows that in 2024 international exports decreased 1% from 2023, continuing the general downward trend seen from 2000. International imports increased by 1% in 2024. 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 2024 (PORT0205)

International 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, this includes North African countries which are on the Mediterranean coastline (such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt).

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.

Of all international freight traded with the UK, around 85% by weight and around 55% by value were moved by sea. Sea transport is typically used for heavier, lower value goods. These figure have been calculated using HMRC Trade data. More information on comparisons between these port freight statistics and HMRC trade data can be found in the notes and definitions. These statistics will explore international freight moved through UK ports in 2024.

Chart 13 is a bar chart showing tonnage handled by UK ports by international region.

In 2024: 

• short sea trade accounted for 68% of international UK tonnage traffic (compared to 32% for deep-sea routes) 

• tonnage moved through ports in the European Union (EU) accounted for 53% of all international tonnage traffic and remained the largest region 

• all America routes had the largest absolute increase of 2.6 million tonnes (4%), followed by Other Europe & Mediterranean which increased by 1.8 million tonnes (4%) 

• all Africa (excluding Mediterranean countries) routes had the largest absolute decline from 2023, down 1.8 million tonnes (19%)

Chart 13: International freight tonnage by route, 2024 (PORT0204)

Charts 14 and 15 show trends in short sea and deep sea tonnage over the last decade. Overall, short sea tonnage traffic increased by less than 1%, up 1.1 million tonnes from 2023. Total deep sea traffic decreased by less than 1% in 2024, down 0.5 million tonnes. By contrast, unitised traffic increased in 2024 on both short sea routes ( 1%) and deep sea routes (6%).

Charts 14 and 15: International deep and long sea tonnage and unitised traffic from 2014 to 2024 (PORT0204)

Overall, the cargo group breakdown for short sea and deep sea trade largely followed the national picture. Liquid bulk was the largest category and accounted for 36% of total short sea tonnage and 48% of total deep sea tonnage traffic in 2024. Ro-Ro traffic accounted for the second largest proportion of short sea tonnage traffic (29%) in 2024, whereas container (Lo-Lo) traffic accounted for the second largest proportion of deep sea tonnage traffic (30%).

Short sea tonnage traffic

In 2024, short sea tonnage traffic had a slight increase of less than 1% (1.1 million tonnes), with imports and exports both increasing by less than 1%. Cargo moved on short sea routes showed different trends than those in the last few years. Short sea dry bulk traffic increased by 5% in 2024, after substantial declines the previous two years. This short sea increase contrasted the UK’s overall dry bulk decline. 

Liquid bulk moved on short sea routes had the largest absolute decline of any cargo group, down 1.1 million tonnes (1%), and both imports and exports contributed to the decrease. Exports of crude oil contributed most to the decline seen in liquid bulk on short sea routes, down 11% compared to 2023. The majority of this decrease was from exports on routes to the Netherlands, which fell 27%.  

Despite the overall decline in liquid bulk tonnage on short sea routes in 2024, exports of oil products had an increase of 11%. The Netherlands also mostly accounted for all the UK’s increased exports of oil products, which increased by 46% (2.7 million tonnes). The UK imported more oil products from Netherlands in 2024 than any other short sea country. DUKES reported that The Netherlands is a major oil trading hub and is the principle source of product imports for the UK, with increasing demand and therefore imports of oil after the ban on Russian oil. 

Short sea dry bulk had a 5% increase (1.9 million tonnes), which contrasted the 4% decline for all routes (3.5 million tonnes). Exports of Ores drove this increase, with Turkey being the largest partner country and also accounted for the largest increase (1 million tonnes) of all countries on short sea routes.  

More information on the decline in dry bulk trends can be found in the cargo information section.

Deep sea tonnage traffic

Deep sea traffic aligned with overall UK trends in 2024, with the largest declines in liquid and dry bulks and increases across containers and other general cargo.

Overall in 2024, the USA accounted for the largest proportion of  the UK’s deep sea tonnage traffic, 43.1 million tonnes (40%), followed by China at 12.7 million tonnes (12%). The USA was the UK’s biggest partner country for bulk traffic, where it accounted for 60% of all liquid bulks and 47% of dry bulks, of all deep sea routes.  

Contrasting overall deep sea route trends, the USA had substantial increases in both liquid and dry bulks. Imports of crude oil and oil products drove the overall 1.4 million tonne increase in liquid bulk trade with USA, in 2024. Imports of other dry bulk, which rose by 2 million tonnes (41%), accounted for almost all of the overall dry bulk increase on routes between the UK and USA. 

Container tonnage increased by 2 million tonnes on deep sea routes in 2024, driven by imports. This followed the steady increase in deep sea container tonnage, since 2022. Exports of container tonnage on deep sea routes declined slightly, by 2% from 2023. 

China was the largest deep sea partner country in 2024, and its container traffic increased by 1 million tonnes, the largest increase of deep sea countries. China accounted for half of the total container increase on deep sea routes. 

Deep sea unitised traffic 

Overall, deep sea unitised  container traffic increased by 8% in 2024, where both imports and exports increased. China handled 1.6 million units, half of all container traffic on deep sea routes, and accounted for the majority of the increase of all deep sea routes.  

Deep sea Ro-Ro units remained at 0.6 million units in 2024. Almost all Ro-Ro traffic on deep sea routes were import and export vehicles. Imported vehicles increased by 27 thousand units, whereas exported vehicles decreased by 24 thousand units in 2024.

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 port list.

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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