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Accredited official statistics

Port Freight Quarterly Statistics: October to December 2019

Published 11 March 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/port-freight-quarterly-statistics-october-to-december-2019/port-freight-quarterly-statistics-october-to-december-2019

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 October to December 2019 with October to December 2018 through UK major ports:

  • total volume of freight tonnage increased 1% to 123.4 million tonnes
  • inward tonnage was stable with 80.3 million tonnes
  • outward tonnage increased by 2% to 43.1 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic decreased by 4% to 5.4 million units
  • inward units decreased by 4% to 2.8 million units
  • outward units decreased by 4% to 2.6 million units

When comparing the rolling year to December 2019 with December 2018 through UK major ports:

  • total tonnage was stable with 472.8 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic decreased 3% to 23.1 million units

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

This chart shows the trend of tonnage and unitised traffic since 2015, on a quarterly basis.

Further information about these statistics

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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