National statistics

Port Freight Quarterly Statistics: January to March 2020

Published 10 June 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/port-freight-quarterly-statistics-january-to-march-2020/port-freight-quarterly-statistics-january-to-march-2020

Note for publication

Following a recent user consultation that stated the interest in Passenger Vehicles figures, DfT have been collecting this data quarterly with the intent to include them in the PORT0502 table. However, due to data quality concerns DfT will review these data alongside the more detailed annual breakdown. The Maritime Statistics team will review this and aim to make the data available in 2020.

When comparing January to March 2020 with January to March 2019 through UK major ports:

  • total volume of freight tonnage decreased 6% to 113.0 million tonnes
  • inward tonnage decreased 7% with 72.4 million tonnes
  • outward tonnage decreased 3% to 40.6 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic decreased by 12% to 4.8 million units
  • inward units decreased by 11% to 2.6 million units
  • outward units decreased by 12% to 2.2 million units

When comparing the rolling year to March 2020 with March 2019 through UK major ports:

  • total tonnage decreased 3% with 466.6 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic decreased 6% to 22.5 million units

Detailed final annual statistics for 2019 and 2020 will be published in summer 2020 and summer 2021 respectively.

Some of the decreases observed in the first quarter of 2020 could be related to the UK’s departure from the EU, storms Ciara and Dennis and the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, especially for unitised traffic, which includes passenger vehicles.

The pandemic is likely to have an impact on UK society and economic activity beyond March 2020. Provisional data covering April to June 2020 (due to be released in September 2020) will show the fuller impact of the coronavirus pandemic on port freight.

This chart shows the trend of tonnage and unitised traffic indices since 2014, on a quarterly basis

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

We are trialling this compact HTML format for our quarterly port freight releases, and we would like to hear your comments. If you have any feedback on our use of this format, please email maritime.stats@dft.gov.uk.

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