Accredited official statistics

Port freight quarterly statistics: January to March 2024

Published 6 June 2024

Overview of Quarterly Port Freight Statistics 

When comparing January to March 2024 with January to March 2023 through UK major ports: 

• total freight tonnage decreased by 6% to 103.0 million tonnes 
• inward tonnage decreased by 3% to 69.6 million tonnes 
• outward tonnage decreased by 10% to 33.4 million tonnes 
• total volume of unitised traffic increased by 3% to 4.6 million units 
• inward units increased by 4% to 2.5 million units 
• outward units increased by 2% to 2.1 million units 

When comparing the rolling year to March 2024 with March 2023 through UK major ports: 

• total tonnage decreased by 6% to 419.8 million tonnes 
• total volume of unitised traffic increased by 3% to 20.9 million units 

Detailed final annual statistics for 2023 will be published in July 2024. 

This publication includes both accredited official statistics and official statistics in development. For more information, see the about these statistics section.

Chart 1: Quarterly port freight tonnage and units from 2019 (PORT0502)

Note, the 2021 and 2022 series have been removed from these charts to make them easier to read because the trends are very similar to those seen in 2023. 

Chart 1 shows that in Q1 (January to March) 2024, tonnage traffic decreased by 14% compared to the equivalent quarter in 2019 – this is a slightly greater gap than seen in recent previous years. 

Chart 1 also shows that unitised port freight traffic in Q1 2024, including passenger vehicles, has followed the seasonal pattern seen in previous years, and decreased by 4% since Q4 (October to December) 2023. Although unitised traffic in Q1 2024 has increased by 3% since Q1 2023, compared to the equivalent quarter in 2019, unitised traffic has decreased by 17% (broadly reflecting trends seen in previous years). Seasonal unitised traffic trends largely reflect fluctuations in sea passenger volumes. Sea passenger statistics are available in the sea passenger data collection.

Port Freight trends by cargo type estimates

  Method and coverage

We are trialling publishing estimates of cargo groups alongside the quarterly port freight statistics in PORT0503. The estimates are based on total tonnage and units provided by the port which are validated to a high standard and published as provisional national statistics in PORT0502. These totals are then split by cargo group based on data provided by shipping agents. If no shipping agent data is received for a port, then no estimates can be created. Since Q3 (July to September) 2022, where large amounts of data from a shipping agent is missing in the current quarter, a value has been imputed from the equivalent quarter in the previous year to allow for more accurate national trend analysis. This method is still under development and any feedback from users is welcome at Maritime.Stats@dft.gov.uk. 

The agents and ports data might not always match due to missing agent data, or differences in how ports and agents categorise certain shipments. During the annual validations process the department carries out extensive matching between these 2 data sources and queries the data providers to finalise the annual dataset. During quarterly validations, only high-level matching is conducted. Therefore, PORT0502, instead of PORT0503, should always be used for accurate trend analysis. 

Nevertheless, as with all the quarterly figures, these estimates are provisional until finalised with the annual publication in the following calendar year, for example 2023 estimates will be finalised in July 2024. 

Chart 2: UK port freight tonnage traffic by cargo group since 2019 (PORT0503)

Chart 2 shows UK quarterly major port tonnage from Q1 2019 to Q1 2024 with different lines for the different cargo group estimates. The relative levels of different cargo groups are generally stable over this period though Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro) Freight and Dry Bulk frequently change places as the second largest group behind Liquid Bulk. This quarter Ro-Ro Freight was the second largest. Liquid bulk is the main driver of the UK’s overall decrease in tonnage traffic seen this quarter compared to Q1 2023. 

Chart 3  shows how different cargo estimates have changed for the 3 UK ports with the largest overall decreases in tonnage handled from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, and Chart 4 shows this for the three UK ports with the largest overall increases in tonnage handled.  

The figures in the charts in this release are timelier estimates. For high quality trend analysis of cargo groups, please use our 2023 port freight annual statistics when published in July 2024.

Chart 3: The top 3 UK ports with the largest overall decreases in tonnage handled from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, segmented by cargo group (PORT0503)

Note, some ports do not handle all of the cargo groups in the key. Cargo groups that are not handled at the port will not appear on the chart.

Chart 4: The top 3 UK ports with the largest overall increases in tonnage handled from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, segmented by cargo group (PORT0503)

Note, some ports do not handle all of the cargo groups in the key. Cargo groups that are not handled at the port will not appear on the chart.

Liquid Bulk 

Chart 2 shows that liquid bulk tonnage through UK major ports has decreased by 11% to 40.5 million tonnes when comparing Q1 2024 with Q1 2023. 

Chart 3 shows that the overall reduction in liquid bulk from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024 was largely driven by Clydeport, which saw a 1.4 million tonne decrease (-68%) during this period, the largest decrease in liquid bulk tonnage of any major UK port. The port cited essential, but unplanned, maintenance work by a supplier to have impacted on liquid imports and exports this quarter. Medway and Milford Haven also saw significant drops in liquid bulk in Q1 2024, falling by 1.2 million tonnes (-62%) and 1.1 million tonnes (-11%) respectively.   

Dry Bulk 

When comparing Q1 2024 with Q1 2023, dry bulk tonnage decreased by 8% to 19.3 million tonnes. London saw the greatest decline in dry bulk of all UK ports, down 0.9 million tonnes (-23%), followed by Port Talbot, down 0.6 million tonnes (-33%).  

Containers 

Container tonnage in Q1 2024 has showed little change to 14.7 million tonnes, an increase of less than 1% compared to the same quarter in 2023.  

Container unitised traffic saw a 4% increase in Q1 2024 when compared with Q1 2023, rising by 49,000 units.

Ro-Ro Freight 

When comparing Q1 2024 with Q1 2023, Ro-Ro freight tonnage decreased by 2% to 22.8 million tonnes. Portsmouth saw a 0.3 million tonne decrease (-57%) in Ro-Ro freight tonnage during this period, the largest decrease in Ro-Ro freight of any major UK port, falling to 0.2 million tonnes. This was closely followed by Felixstowe who saw a 0.2 million tonnes decrease (-31%) in Ro-Ro freight tonnage during this period, as shown in Chart 4. 

Ro-Ro freight unitised traffic saw little change in Q1 2024 when compared with Q1 2023, increasing by 5,000 units (less than 1%).

Ro-Ro Non-Freight 

Comparing Q1 2024 to Q1 2023, Ro-Ro Non-Freight units increased by 6% to 1.4 million units. Dover saw a 40,000 unit increase (22%) during this period, the largest increase in Ro-Ro Non-Freight units of any major UK port, rising to 227,000 units, as shown in Chart 5. 

Chart 5: The top 3 UK ports with the largest overall increases in units handled from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, segmented by cargo group (PORT0503)

Note, some ports do not handle all of the cargo groups in the key. Cargo groups that are not handled at the port will not appear.

Chart 6: UK port freight unitised traffic by cargo group since 2019 (PORT0503)

Chart 6 shows UK quarterly major port units from Q1 2019 to Q4 2023 with different lines for the different cargo group estimates. The relative levels of Ro-Ro freight and Containers are generally stable over this period whilst Ro-Ro Non-Freight follows a seasonal trend. Since Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, Ro-Ro Non-Freight unitised traffic saw a decline of 15% which can be primarily attributed to usual seasonal variations.

Further information  

Further information about these statistics is available, including:  

• background information on quarterly port freight statistics

• notes and definitions for all port freight statistics

Please contact MaritimeForecasts@dft.gov.uk if you have any questions about DfT port freight forecasts.  

Definitions  

Unitised goods: Goods which are lifted on or off the vessel in large (20 foot or longer) shipping containers or rolled on or off in 1 of a variety of self-propelled or towed units are said to be unitised cargoes. For these cargo types, the number of units as well as the weight of goods is recorded. The exception is passenger cars, which do not carry cargo and therefore the department only collect the number of units for.

Tonnage: Gross weight in tonnes, including crates and other packaging. The tare weights of containers, road goods vehicles, trailers and other items of transport equipment (the unloaded weight of the vehicle or equipment itself) are excluded.

Liquid bulk: Consists of any liquid or liquid gas that is transported in a tank.

Liquified natural gas (LNG): 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.

Dry bulk: Carried in the main cargo hold of bulk carrier vessels, for example coal, ores and scrap metal.

Lift-on/Lift-of (Lo-Lo): Container (Lo-Lo) traffic is measured in both tonnes and units, where 1 unit is 1 container, and tonnage measures the weight of the cargo being carried, excluding the weight of the container itself, so an empty container has a weight of 0.

Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro): Cargo that can be moved on to, or off, a vessel either by their own propulsion (such as a passenger car) or with assistance (such as an unaccompanied trailer). Detailed information is available in this category flowchart.

Ro-Ro freight traffic: All Ro-Ro units that carry cargo, both accompanied and unaccompanied, it is measured in both tonnes and units, where 1 unit is 1 vehicle or trailer, and tonnage measures the weight of the cargo being carried, excluding the weight of the vehicle itself, so an empty unit has a weight of 0.

Ro-Ro non-freight traffic: All other Roll-on/Roll-off traffic that does not carry cargo, such as passenger vehicles, import/export vehicles and unaccompanied caravans. Passenger vehicles are counted in units but do not have a tonnage as they are carrying no cargo, therefore Ro-Ro non-freight tonnage is mostly import/export vehicles.

Accompanied: Road goods vehicles carrying freight accompanied by the driver on the sea crossing.

Unaccompanied: Road goods vehicles without the accompanied cab, rolled on and off the vessel by port operations and collected by a new driver at the destination port.

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