Accredited official statistics

Port freight annual statistics 2025: International routes trends

Published 29 July 2026

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 

Chart 12 shows trends in international and domestic tonnage at UK ports. Total international traffic (imports and exports combined) showed little change in 2025 compared to 2024, increasing less than 1% to 336.1 million tonnes.  

The small overall change in total international freight masks opposing trends in imports and exports. While imports increased 2% to 237.5 million tonnes in 2025, exports decreased 4% to 98.6 million tonnes. This is consistent with trends observed since 2000, with imports consistently exceeding exports and exports steadily declining over time, reflecting the UK’s growing trade in goods deficit.  

In 2025, domestic traffic decreased by 3% from 2024 to 83.3 million tonnes. Domestic trends are explored in more detail in the domestic trends chapter.  

Chart 12: Major port international freight by direction and domestic freight from 2000 to 2025 (PORT0205)  

 

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’ countries. 

Deep sea: maritime traffic that crosses oceans. This consists of traffic to and from countries in Africa, America, Asia and Australasia. Countries on the Mediterranean coastline, including those in North Africa, are classed under short sea in the port freight series (i.e. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt). 

Transhipment: 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. 

Liquified natural gas (LNG) is natural gas which has been cooled to approximately -160°C, changing its state from gas to liquid. This enables transportation of gas by ship, as the volume is significantly reduced compared to the gaseous state. Following import, LNG is regasified at a terminal and then transported through the gas pipeline network.

International freight 

Chart 13 is a bar chart showing tonnage handled by UK ports by international region. In 2025 short sea trade accounted for 65% of international UK tonnage traffic (compared to 35% for deep sea routes).  

Tonnage moved through ports in the European Union accounted for 52% of all international tonnage traffic in 2025 and remained the UK’s largest trading region, despite declining 3.0 million tonnes (2%) from 2024. In 2025, All America routes had the largest absolute increase of 4.7 million tonnes (up 8% from 2024), followed by All Asia routes that increased by 2 million tonnes (5%).  

Chart 13: International freight tonnage by route region, 2025 (PORT0204) 

 

Chart 14 is a bar chart showing tonnage handled by UK ports by the top 10 countries. In 2025, The Netherlands – home to several major European transhipment ports – accounted for 17% of all UK international tonnage traffic, more than any other country and consistent with previous years. This was closely followed by the USA, which accounted for 14% of international tonnage traffic. Tonnage from the USA had the absolute largest increase of any country in 2025, increasing 2.9 million tonnes (up 7% from 2024). 

The top 10 countries account for 69% of all UK major port international tonnage in 2025. International route trends are discussed in more detail in the International cargo group trends section below. 

Chart 14: Top 10 international freight tonnage by country route, 2025 (PORT0204) 

 

Charts 15 and 16  show trends in short sea and deep sea tonnage and unitised import and export traffic over the last decade. Unitised container imports and exports typically follow similar trends with both increasing (across deep and short sea) in 2025 compared to 2024. However, trends in import and export tonnage tend to diverge because the UK imports more goods than it exports, resulting in the export of empty containers (that have a unitised value, but no tonnage), both on deep and short sea routes.

Chart 15: International short and deep sea tonnage from 2015 to 2025 (PORT0204) 

 

Chart 16: International short and deep sea unitised traffic from 2015 to 2025 (PORT0204) 

 

Overall, in 2025, total international short sea traffic (imports and exports combined) decreased from 2024, both in terms of tonnage, down 5.9 million tonnes (3%), and units, down 0.3 million units (2%). By contrast, deep sea traffic increased from 2024 to 2025 by 7.5 million tonnes (7%) and 0.5 million units (12%). 

International cargo group trends

Chart 17 shows changes in deep and short sea tonnage by cargo group from 2024 to 2025. Liquid bulk was the largest category in 2025 across both short sea and deep sea traffic, accounting for 35% and 46% of tonnage respectively.  

For short sea routes, Ro-Ro was the second largest cargo category for tonnage traffic (30% in 2025), mainly on the shortest crossing routes between the UK and mainland Europe (i.e. France, The Netherlands and Belgium). For deep sea routes, container traffic was the second largest category for tonnage (31% in 2025), primarily shipments from China.  

Chart 17: Short and deep sea tonnage by cargo group, 2024 to 2025 (PORT0204) 

Short sea traffic 

In 2025, short sea tonnage decreased across imports (down 1% from 2024) and exports (down 6%). This decline was largely driven by a 6% decrease in liquid bulk and a 4% decrease in dry bulk, with a smaller decline in Ro-Ro (1%). By contrast, container short sea traffic increased 7% in 2025.  

Liquid bulk moved on short sea routes had the largest absolute decline of any short sea cargo group in 2025, down 5.1 million tonnes from 2024 (6%), with this decrease primarily reflecting fewer exports. Most of this decline was on routes to The Netherlands with large decreases in oil product exports, down 1.7 million tonnes (20%) and crude oil exports, down 0.6 million tonnes (15%). According to the DESNZ Energy Trends report, this reflects the near-record low year for primary oil production from the mature North Sea basin in 2025, as well as the record UK lows for product refinery output after the closure of the Grangemouth and Lindsey oil refineries - this lead to decreased refinery demand and fewer liquid bulk shipments to the Netherlands, Europe’s major trading hub for oil. 

Compared to 2024, containers had the largest absolute increase in short sea traffic, up 1.9 million tonnes (7%) and 0.1 million units (3%) in 2025, with rises in both imports and exports. Most of this increase was on routes with The Netherlands with tonnage imports rising 10% and exports rising 9% from 2024 to 2025. This aligns with the opening of London’s forth berth at London Gateway, providing increased capacity for the handling of container shipments in and out of the UK. The Netherlands, Europe’s transhipment hub with several major container ports, is a key route for the Port of London (given its geographical proximity) and container shipments on this route have risen 69% from 2024 to 2025.

Deep sea traffic 

In 2025, deep sea tonnage increased across imports (up 7% from 2024) and exports (up 6%). Deep sea tonnage rose in all cargo groups in 2025 with large increases in containers, up 3.1 million tonnes (10%), dry bulk, up 2.5 million tonnes (13%), and liquid bulk, up 1.6 million tonnes (3%). 

Container deep sea tonnage increased across imports and exports - this was also reflected in increased unitised container traffic, up 0.5 million units (14%) from 2024 to 2025. This rise was driven by increased container imports from China, up 1.3 million tonnes (13%), and from India, up 0.5 million tonnes (28%). Both China and India are major global suppliers of manufactured goods, and the UK continues to increase imports from these countries (DBT trade and investment factsheets). China is the UK’s largest container trading partner with unitised traffic reaching 1.8 million units in 2025 (accounting for 32% of all unitised container traffic). 

The increase in deep sea dry bulk traffic in 2025 was largely due to increased imports from the USA (up 1.9 million tonnes from 2024, 22%) and Canada (up 0.9 million tonnes, 39%), particularly of other dry bulk commodities and wood pellets. Rising biomass fuel imports have supported the UK’s renewable energy and decarbonisation objectives (Biomass Strategy 2023), with imported wood pellets used extensively in biomass power generation (DESNZ Energy Trends report).The USA is the UK’s primary supplier of wood pellets accounting for 77% of all wood pellet imports in 2025. 

Lastly, increased deep sea liquid bulk traffic was primarily driven by greater LNG imports from the USA, which rose 3.7 million tonnes from 2024 to 2025 (up 53%). This increase is consistent with trends in the DESNZ Energy Trends report that shows the growing importance of USA LNG in meeting UK energy demands. Since 2022, the USA has been the UK’s largest liquid bulk trading partner, and in 2025, imports from the USA accounted for 74% of all UK LNG imports. This shift has been supported by a major expansion of liquefaction capacity in the USA, which has substantially increased the country’s LNG exports to the global market (US Department for Energy LNG factsheet).

Background information

The PORT data 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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